Lualemana v. Magalei

4 Am. Samoa 849
CourtHigh Court of American Samoa
DecidedFebruary 28, 1962
DocketNo. 7-1962
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Am. Samoa 849 (Lualemana v. Magalei) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering High Court of American Samoa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lualemana v. Magalei, 4 Am. Samoa 849 (amsamoa 1962).

Opinion

MORROW, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Trial Division ordering the appellants Lualemana and Leasiolagi (defendants in the Trial Division) to “vacate any parts of the lands Tafeata, Yaitai, and Leaveave occupied by them, or either of them, within 20 days from the date of” the order, which was January 16,1962.

Hereinafter we shall refer to .the appellants Lualemana and Leasiolagi as the defendants and the appellees as the plaintiffs, they having been such respectively in the trial court.

The plaintiffs instituted an action against the defendants on September 13, 1961 seeking an order evicting the defendants from the lands Tafeata, Vaitai, and Leaveave. The evidence showed that the part of the land Tafeata involved together with the lands Vaitai and Leaveave lies to the right of the highway (it was built by the U.S. Marines during World War II) going from Faleniu to Aoloau Fou. Hereinafter when we refer to the land Tafeata, we mean the part of Tafeata to the right of said highway.

[851]*851Section 213 of Chapter 5 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of Amendments, Nos. 11-59, 1952 to the A. S. Code provides that “The Appellate Division of the High Court on appeal.. . shall have power to affirm, modify, set aside, or reverse the judgment or order appealed from or reviewed and to remand the case with such directions for a new trial or for the entry of judgment as may he just. The findings of fact of the Trial and Probate Divisions of the High Court in cases tried by them shall not be set aside by the Appellate Division of that court unless clearly erroneous (emphasis ours)____”

The trial court found, in accordance with the testimony of the plaintiffs, that the land Tafeata was cleared from the bush in 1922 by the chiefs and young men of the Village of Faleniu and that it was divided up among the chiefs after the clearing, the part which each chief got by the division and his occupation becoming the communal land of his family in accordance with his claim of the ownership thereof.

And the trial court further found from the evidence that the lands Vaitai and Leaveave were cleared from the bush by the Faleniu people in 1928 and that after the clearing, these lands, like Tafeata, were divided up among the chiefs of Faleniu, the part which each chief got by the division and his occupation becoming the communal land of his family in accordance with his claim of the ownership thereof. The Court further found that any possible claim which the defendants may have had to the land involved was extinguished by adverse possession by the plaintiffs for 20 years. Section 907 (2) of the A. S. Code provides that the “Statutory period governing the acquisition of title by adverse possession shall be 20 years.”

While there was some conflict in the evidence, an examination of the record in the trial court convinces us that not only the weight of evidence but the great weight of [852]*852the evidence was in favor of the plaintiffs. Under these circumstances, we cannot say that the findings of fact made by the trial court were “clearly erroneous” so as to permit us under Section 213, above quoted, to set aside the findings of the trial court and grant a new trial.

At the trial, the defendants claimed that these three lands were first cleared by the Lualemana people from the bush in 1946. However, Lualemana did not get around to putting in any plantations on Tafeata and Vaitai until 1960, which was 14 years later. And Leasiolagi, a member of the Lualemana Family, did not get around to putting in any plantations on Leaveave until 1951, which was 15 years after, as he testified, it was first cleared from the bush.

It is very, very difficult for us to believe that a Samoan would clear land from the virgin bush and then wait 14 or 15 years to put in a plantation on it. On the other hand, the evidence showed that the plaintiffs had cleared the land involved in 1922 and 1928 and had had plantations on it for many years prior to 1946. Furthermore, defendant Lualemana in the case of Filo of Faleniu v. Faoliu Lualemana, No. 43-1961, (an interrelated proceeding, the record of which the .trial court quite properly took judicial notice) testified that Tafeata was first cleared from the bush in 1918, whereas Leasiolagi, his co-defendant in this case, testified it was first cleared from the bush in 1946. Lualemana also testified in the interrelated case that he filed a war damage claim on Tafeata using the name Tuiapolima. This turned out to be false testimony. That the trial court could properly take judicial notice of the record in the interrelated proceeding is clear. 31 C.J.S. 625. And “An appellate court will take judicial notice of any matter of which the court of original jurisdiction may take notice.” 20 Am. Jur. 55.

[853]*853The editors of Corpus Juris Secundum say this:

“Under the maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, as strictly interpreted, if a witness testifies falsely as to any one material part of his testimony, it should be discarded as a whole, and cannot be relied on for any purpose whatsoever, unless corroborated.” 98 C.J.S. 344.

It is claimed by counsel for the defendants that in Samoa there is no such thing as village communal land. And that may be true. However, the claim if it is correct, has no application to the instant case, as the Court found that the lands involved after the clearings by the Faleniu people were divided up among the Faleniu chiefs, the various chiefs concerned getting separate pieces. While the chiefs and their young men acted together in clearing the land, yet each chief owned his own part separately after the division.

The chiefs could properly join in this action since there were common questions of law and fact affecting their several (separate) rights, although .their various properties are severally owned.

Paragraph (a) of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that:

“Representation. If persons constituting a class are so numerous as to make it impracticable to bring them all before the court, such of them, one or more, as will fairly insure adequate representation for all may, on behalf of all, sue or be sued, when the character of the right sought to be enforced for or against the class is (3) several, and there is a common question of law or fact affecting their several rights and a common relief is sought.”

Section 251 of the A. S. Code as amended provides that:

“In the High Court and the District Courts, the civil practice shall conform, as closely as practicable, to the practice provided for in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”

[854]*854We think under Paragraph (a) of Rule 23, above quoted, that the other chiefs could properly join and also represent Savea. There were common questions of law and fact affecting several rights, and a common relief was sought, viz., the eviction of the defendants from the land involved.

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4 Am. Samoa 849, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lualemana-v-magalei-amsamoa-1962.