Abstract
Kruse examines German Sāmoa’s Supreme Court and Land Commission decisions that found land claim cases were difficult to adjudicate without written land deeds or surveys. The Supreme Court created land classifications that segmented and converted customary lands; Kruse contends the Supreme Court interpreted custom to create a legal status of “rightful owner” by extending social and political parameters of mātai pule. The chapter details how by the 1890s, the diminishing rights of the mātai over the conveyance or transfer of lands, coupled with the new system of land classifications, led to the splitting of communal lands. Kruse argues that the German Sāmoa court decisions were readily accepted by American Sāmoa’s Naval court, legitimizing individual land rights. Detailing the intention of the Naval Court to legitimize adverse land possession that they believed would civilize and stabilize land titles and that also included laws to force plantation cultivation to pay copra taxes.
“It is not worthwhile for the Court to cite the numberless authorities on the question of the settlement of titles by adverse possession. The doctrine is so well understood that it is a waste of time to discuss it.”
USN Commandant Charles Moore, Talala v. Logo,1 A.S.R. 166 at 174 (1907)
I do not want to hear any histories or stories that have been handed down—I want to know who has lived on these lands and has worked them for the past forty years—I will tell you why. I have never heard a story in this court that was handed down that the other side did not tell a story that was entirely different so that when we got thru [sic] I did not know which side to believe so it was just time wasted. The stories handed down in any family I do not know whether to believe them or not—what my father told me he saw I believe but anything else might very probably be made up in their mind.
USN Commandant Harry Wood, Saole v. Sagatu, 1-1919
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Notes
- 1.
At that time, the only Court system was using Art. IV, Sec. 8 of the Final Act of Berlin as a prescriptive section, confirming claims concluded prior to the Tripartite Treaty. See Section 10: “the equitability of consideration received in exchange for land”; Section 4, “whether the land was sold by those empowered to do so, ‘by the rightful owner’ […] for sufficient consideration;” Section 11, “with clear or regular title identifying boundaries.”
- 2.
Warfare was forever changed by the European sailors bartering with and selling of ammunition and guns. The introduction of guns and weapons changed the nature of warfare between clans and districts, making their conflicts much more violent and leading to higher rates of death and mutilation.
- 3.
“The possession must be actual, visible, exclusive, hostile, and continued during the time necessary to create a bar under the statute of limitations.”
- 4.
Charles Moore was USN Commandant and Governor from January 1905 to May 1908.
- 5.
Arthur Morrow was chief justice from 1937 to 1966.
- 6.
Benjamin Tilley was the first USN Commandant and acting Governor from 1899 to 1901 (left American Sāmoa after being court martialed).
- 7.
Uriel Sebree was USN Commandant and Governor from January 1905 to May 1908.
- 8.
Edmund Underwood was USN Commandant and Governor from May 1903 to January 1905.
- 9.
B.R. Patrick was the Chaplain of the Naval Station and was assigned the President of the High Court during periods when the USN Commandant left the islands on holiday.
- 10.
Harry Wood was chief justice from 1921 to 1937.
- 11.
The limitation of 20 years to claim title through adverse land possession was also applied by the High Court to prohibit land claims due to the statute of limitation. In Tuiolosega v. Voa, 2 ASR 138 (1941), the High Court denied the plaintiff’s adverse land claim over land in Olosega because the plaintiff filed against Voa in 1918 but only prosecuted his claim to recover possession in 1941, meaning that the plaintiff did not exercise due diligence. The High Court determined that because Tuiolosega waited for 23 years to prosecute his case, his suit did not stop the clock to the running of the statute.
- 12.
Each district had a certain amount of pounds required to be brought to government for sale. Bigger districts were required to provide more than smaller districts in terms of poundage of copra.
- 13.
“In view of the fact that so much time has been wasted in the beginning of this year in cricket games between villages, no permission will be granted for malagas until further orders. No malaga will be made at any time for any purpose without the approval of the Governor.” Cricket games became so widely played that food production was seriously affected, and the civil government and religious missions became so concerned that they made cricket playing a disciplinary offense, not just in Sāmoa but also in Tonga, K. Fortune (2000), “Cricket,” p.459. Henry Bryan was USN Commandant and Governor from March 1925 to September 1927.
- 14.
In the first 15 years of the American administration, there was really just one surveyor on the islands that completed surveys as required by the High Court , American merchant B.F. Kneubuhl.
- 15.
While the High Court considered the names of the communal lands irrelevant, the village names are important to the village. The names may represent Sāmoan legends, war, significant natural resource on the lands, or symbolism of something unique and tangible to the village.
- 16.
Poumuli is the Sāmoan and Tongan name for a tree that is very durable and used as poles for traditional homes and cooking houses, also known as Securinega flexuosa.
- 17.
Sāmoan names do not conform to western practices of name-giving from birth to death. In the Sāmoan custom, the child may take the father’s surname and/or the mātai as the first name. Then, upon conveyance of mātai title later in life, the individual then assumes the māta i title as the first name and the father’s name as the last name. In addition, the individual may possess a mātai title, then receive a more senior mātai title from the village mātai, at which point the individual will change their name again to reflect the senior mātai title as the first name. The most senior and prestigious matai name will be ordered as the first name.
- 18.
In order to have a case tried before the Judicial Commission , both parties to the lawsuit must agree to have their dispute heard by the Judicial Commission. If one party refused to have the case heard by the Judicial Commission, then the case was heard before the High Court.
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Memea Kruse, LN. (2018). American Sāmoan Legal History: 1900–1941. In: The Pacific Insular Case of American Sāmoa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69971-4_6
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