Mageo v. Fuga

4 Am. Samoa 426
CourtHigh Court of American Samoa
DecidedNovember 19, 1963
DocketNo. 76-1963
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Am. Samoa 426 (Mageo v. Fuga) 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
Mageo v. Fuga, 4 Am. Samoa 426 (amsamoa 1963).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROEL, Associate Justice.

Came on to be heard the above entitled and numbered cause wherein Applicant, Mageo Felise, filed an application with the Office of the Registrar of Titles of American Samoa to register a certain surveyed parcel of land called “Vaitafe,” containing 1.01 acres, more or less, as the communal land of the Mageo Family. Upon notice of the proposed registration of the land, objections were filed by Fuga Selega on behalf of the Fuga Family and by Pogai and Faafia, on behalf of the Taito Family.

[428]*428Applicant Mageo sought to register the land in question as the communal land of the Mageo Family. Fuga objected to the registration of the land as surveyed on the ground that the land in question was the communal land of the Fuga Family. At the trial, Fuga and his counsel, Leota, stated Fuga was claiming only a part of the land within the survey, about 1k of the land involved. Pogai and Faafia objected to the registration of the land on the grounds that a portion of the land Vaitafe included in the survey was the communal family land of the Taito Family. At the trial and at the time the Court visited the site of the land involved, Pagai and Faafia, together with their counsel, Tuaolo, claimed only about 450 square feet of the land within the survey, or 1/9s or just over 1 % of the total land in question, which consists of 1.01 acres.

Previous to the time of the trial, all three judges viewed the land in question in the presence of all the parties involved, their counsel, and other witnesses.

The original survey of the land was made in February, 1962, and it was agreed that all the parties hereto were present at the time of the survey. The application to register the land was filed June 6,1963.

Mageo, the applicant, sought to prove his case by the testimony of Liufau Moelata and Mageo himself. The testimony of Liufau was so confused, unsubstantiated and irrelevant that, for all practical purposes, we are discounting his whole testimony in arriving at the decision in this case.

Mageo himself testified that his claim to the land in question as the communal land of the Mageo Family was based on the fact that Mageo people had occupied, cleared and used the land from time immemorial to the present. He testified that he was personally familiar with the land for a long time since he had been born there in 1910. Mageo testified Fuga’s claim to a portion of the land within the survey [429]*429had no merit whatsoever. He also testified that the claim asserted by Pogai and Faafia on behalf of the Taito Family was unfounded and incorrect. Mageo testified that the Mageo Family claimed from the sea to the summit when they came to live in Pago Pago. He further testified that around the year 1820 or 1830 Mageo gave a parcel of land to Taito and that said land is adjacent to the southeast of the land in question, between the second and the third points of the plat of the survey, but that no Taito land was included within the survey.

Mageo further testified that Mageo had given a portion of land to Mauga for the use of Fuga around 1850 to the northeast of the second point in the survey, the same being the land where the church house is presently situated. Mageo testified that the Mageo Family first occupied the land in question before 1700 and cleared all the land included within the survey, including the portions claimed by Fuga and Taito, between 1800 and 1900.

Mageo introduced, and the Court received without objection, three instruments into evidence. Exhibit No. 1 related to an agreement separating a dwelling house from land between Mageo M. and Sifoa Loa. The agreement was dated July 31, 1959 and recorded in Register of Mise., Yol. 4, p. 122 on August 21, 1959. It confirmed that the Mageo Family was the owner of the land “Vaitulu” where Sifoa Loa was to erect a building. Mageo testified the building referred to is the same where Spencer’s store is located, within the surveyed parcel of land. Applicant’s Exhibit No. 2 consisted of the plat of the survey as filed with the application in the Court. Said plat was marked with pencil marks during the trial by Fuga and Pogai, respectively, to indicate the amount of land they were each claiming. Exhibit No. 3 was a property separation agreement between Maamoto and Mageo Felise, dated August 1, 1961. It recited that the Mageo Family was the owner of the land [430]*430“Vaitafe” where Maamoto was to erect a building. The Maamoto store building is situated within the survey filed by Mageo.

In response to a question from Leota on cross-examination, Mageo testified that in 1946 Fuga Gafoa surveyed and registered the land where the church is presently situated and only that part. Mageo further answered that Fuga’s guest house was on the land where the church building now stands. Mageo testified that not a single Fuga had lived within the surveyed land. He further testified that Taito houses situated east of the survey are in Taito Family land, originally given to Taito by Mageo Veevalu. Mageo testified that all the land bordering outside of the survey from the third point of the survey to the creek was Taito Family land. In answer to a question by Tuaolo, Mageo testified that Fuga and Taito were related.

Counsel for Fuga, Leota, based his case on the testimony of Fuga Selega, 63 years old, and Lago, 76 years old. Fuga claimed that the portion of the land within the survey as marked by a pencil line was the communal land of the Fuga Family. Fuga testified that the whole area claimed was the residential place of the Fugas, even though he stated that he himself lived further down on Fagasa road. Fuga testified that the name of the land in question was Fusi instead of Vaitafe. Fuga further testified that the land where the church is situated was registered by Fuga in 1955, together with the pastor of the church. It later developed that Fuga was referring to a lease in 1955 and not the registration of the land. Fuga testified that there had been 10 Fugas and that they had all lived on the land in question.

On cross-examination by Tuaolo, Fuga testified that Ioane, Akenese, Tamato, Lia, and Manu had at different times lived on the land within the survey and that all of these persons belonged to the Mageo Family. Later Fuga testified that these people lived within the survey, but not in [431]*431the portion which he was claiming within the survey. Fuga testified that Fuga Gafoa had registered the land on which the church stands and not the portion within the survey he claims because of Gafoa’s great intelligence — that he wanted to leave the unsurveyed land for the family. Fuga testified that the Fuga and Taito families were one family from the beginning and that there had never been any difficulty between the Taito and Fuga chiefs. He further testified that one of the oblong houses of a previous Fuga was near to where Sifoa’s building is presently located, and that Fuga Gafoa and his wife had lived on the land within the survey. Fuga testified that Fuga people cleaned the portion of the land within the survey which Fuga is claiming and that Fuga had had possession of the portion claimed for 63 years.

Lago, witness for Fuga, testified that the portion of the land within the survey claimed by Fuga, from the church to Meamoto’s and Sifoa’s house, was occupied by Fuga people. Lago said that the whole land within the survey was Mageo land except that part claimed by Fuga. Lago claimed that he was related to both Fuga and Mageo.

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Bluebook (online)
4 Am. Samoa 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mageo-v-fuga-amsamoa-1963.