Cabrera v. Ahn Yeong Mi

5 N. Mar. I. 106
CourtSupreme Court of The Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands
DecidedOctober 23, 1997
DocketAppeal No. 96-022; Civil Action No. 94-0324
StatusPublished

This text of 5 N. Mar. I. 106 (Cabrera v. Ahn Yeong Mi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of The Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cabrera v. Ahn Yeong Mi, 5 N. Mar. I. 106 (N.M. 1997).

Opinion

TAYLOR, Chief Justice:

¶1 The appellant, Juan C. Cabrera (“Cabrera”), appeals the Superior Court’s judgment dated March 29, 1996 finding that a valid written lease exists between Cabrera and Ahn Joon Chul (“Mr. Ahn”), the husband of appellee Ahn Yeong Mi (“Mrs. Ahn”), who is presently in possession of the property. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 1 CMC §3102(a). We affirm.

ISSUE PRESENTED AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶2 We are asked to determine whether the Superior Court properly determined that a valid written lease exists between Cabrera and the Ahns based upon the weight of the evidence presented at trial.

¶3 The Superior Court’s findings were made after two-day bench trial. Issues involving questions of fact are subject to the clearly erroneous standard of review. Estate of Deleon Guerrero, 3 N.M.I. 253, 263 n.8 (1992) relying upon Pangelinan v. Unknown Heirs of Mangarero, 1 N.M.I. 387, 393 (1990).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶4 On October 18, 1983, Cabrera leased his property, Lot 008 H, Chalan Kanoa (“the property”), to James Seung Woo Lee (“Mr. Lee”), for a term of twenty years commencing November 1,1981, with an option to renew the lease for another twenty years (“the original lease”). Under the original lease, Mr. Lee made monthly payments of $500.00 to Cabrera for four years.

¶5 On Februaiy 24,1985, Mr. Lee transferred his rights [107]*107under the original lease to Mr. Ahn. The original lease allowed for its assignment or transfer without the consent or without notice to Cabrera.

¶6 On April 15, 1985, Cabrera and Mr. Ahn directly entered into a new lease agreement over the property for a twenty year term commencing on April 16,1985, with an option to renew the same for another twenty years (“the 1985 lease”). The 1985 lease was duly notarized by Servando SP Regis.

¶7 On January 30,1987, Cabrera and Mr. Ahn executed an additional lease agreement that amended the rent payment schedule (“the 1987 lease”). The 1987 lease also acknowledged the validity of all terms and conditions of the 1985 lease. It was properly recorded at the Recorder’s Office as Document No. 87-0182 and was duly notarized by Maria Diana K. Torres.

¶8 Throughout the duration of the lease, the Ahns made all rent payments to Cabrera. Beginning in 1992, Cabrera refused to accept rent from the Ahns. The Ahns thereafter tendered rent by depositing the payments into an interest bearing trust account in favor of Cabrera and gave notice of the account to Cabrera on three different occasions.

¶9 On April 8, 1994, Cabrera filed a complaint to terminate the Ahns tenancy to the property alleging nonpayment of rent. Cabrera filed a second amended complaint on November 8,1994, alleging that in addition to the non-payment of rent, Cabrera had a right to terminate the Ahns’ occupancy on the theory that the subsequent 1985 and 1987 additional leases were invalid because Cabrera’s signatures on the leases were forgeries.

¶10 The matter went to trial on February 28,1996. When Cabrera rested his case, the Ahns moved for a directed verdict on the issue of whether the Ahns had validly tendered rent. The trial court granted the directed verdict finding that the Ahns had not breached the lease for nonpayment of rent. The grant of the directed verdict has not been challenged on appeal.

¶11 After a two day bench trial, wherein the trial court judge heard the testimony of six witnesses, including two expert witnesses on handwriting analysis, and analyzed dozens of exhibits, the Superior Court found that: 1) the 1985 lease was in fact signed by Cabrera; 2) the 1987 lease was in fact signed by Cabrera; 3) neither the 1985 nor the 1987 leases are in default for failure to tender rent and are, therefore, valid and enforceable.1 Cabrera timely appealed.

ANALYSIS

I. Is the Superior Court’s judgment clearly erroneous?

¶12 Cabrera contends that the Superior Court’s decision is clearly erroneous and should be reversed on appeal. Cabrera further argues that Superior Court erred by not accepting the testimony of his handwriting expert who during the course of examining the lease documents found that the signatures on the 1985 and 1987 leases were not Cabrera’s. According to Cabrera, in the instant case, a thorough examination of the entire record, specifically the documents offered into evidence, would show that: (1) there was a systematic intent by Mr. Ahn to forge the leases as Mr. Ahn conveniently did not appear during trial; (2) the alleged transfer of interest was not consistent with the original lease between Cabrera and Mr. Lee in many respects; (c) and the conduct of the Ahns was not consistent with those of a bona fide assignee of Mr. Lee. As such, by a thorough examination of the record on appeal, this Court would conclude that a mistake has been clearly committed.

¶13 The Ahns, on the other hand, urge this Court to affirm the decision of the trial judge made after a two day bench trial, wherein the trial judge had the opportunity to hear the testimony and determine the credibility of six witnesses presented, including two expert witnesses on handwriting analysis. According to the Ahns, Cabrera is simply attempting to evict the Ahns on the basis that his signatures on two different leases were forgeries. At trial, a credible expert witness testified that Cabrera’s signature was in fact authentic. The two notaries that witnessed Cabrera sign the 1985 and 1987 leases also testified that Cabrera’s signatures were genuine. Furthermore, for years, Cabrera accepted rent from the Ahns demonstrating by his conduct that his signatures were in fact authentic. Consequently, the trial court had little difficulty in finding the leases to be valid.

¶14 We begin our analysis by emphasizing the high burden under the clearly erroneous standard that Cabrera must prove in order for this Court to disturb the lower court’s findings. The assessment of evidence is a trial function. Manglona v. Kaipat, 3 N.M.I. 322, 336 (1992). It is not the province of the reviewing court to reweigh the evidence. Cabrera v. Cabrera, 3 N.M.I. 1, 7 (1992). Unless the Court is firmly convinced that a mistake was clearly committed below, it will not disturb the assessment of the trial court. Manglona 3 N.M.I. at 336; Estate of Deleon Guerrerro, 3 N.M.I. at 263.

¶15 Because of the high standard of review, this Court may only reverse if the findings of the trial court are clearly erroneous. At the conclusion of the two-day bench trial, the trial court judge made the following ruling from the bench concerning Cabrera’s testimony and his “faulty” memory:

First of all, Mr. Cabrera may not be lying, he may truly believe that he did not sign these documents but his memory is very selective [108]*108because that is all he remembers. He remembers he just didn’t sign, he just didn’t have a written agreement but he remembers very little of the events surrounding the leases and he remembers very little about the events surrounding the rent payments in 1993. He remembers things when he is presented with a document showing that he received a rent check in 1993 of the entire year of 1993 years’ rental but his ability to recall when he did consult an attorney and all those things is very confused and of course that is not totally unusual in view of his age [72 at the time of trial].

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5 N. Mar. I. 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cabrera-v-ahn-yeong-mi-nmariana-1997.