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Mo J v Bwijtak [1971] TTLawRp 47; 5 TTR 510 (4 November 1971)

MO J., Successor to LANJEN, Plaintiff

v.

BWIJTAK, and Others, Defendants

Civil Action No. 113

Trial Division of the High Court

Marshall Islands District

November 4, 1971

Motion for order in aid of judgment. The Trial Division of the High Court, D. Kelly Turner, Associate Justice, held that where defendant cut copra with the permission of the alab and acquiescence of the iroij lablab he was obligated to pay them their share of the proceeds.

Marshalls Land Law-Use Rights

Defendant's interest, if any, in land in question was that of a worker who could cut copra with the permission of the alab and the acquiescence of the iroij lablab and, in accordance with custom, he was required to pay the shares due those holding superior interests.

TURNER, Associate Justice

REPORT OF HEARING

Motion for order in aid of judgment was made by Mo J., successor to Lanjen as iroij lablab for the first eight wato mentioned in Civil Action No. 113, Lanjen v. Namilur and Others, not reported, for enforcement of the judgment against Bwijtak with respect to Depdep (also known as Drebreben) an island adjacent to Lukonwor Island (and erroneously described as a wato on Lukonwor Island in Civil Action No. 113), and Bokanman Wato on Lukonwor Island, both in Mili Atoll. Civil Action No. 113, entered February 9, 1961, superseded and corrected judgments involving the same parcels of land and some of the same people in Civil Action No. 68, Laibon v. Namilur, 2 T.T.R. 52, entered May 12, 1959, and in Civil Action No. 80, not reported and also entered May 12, 1959. Hearing on this motion was held on Nalu Island, Mili Atoll.

SUMMARY OF FACTS

The defendant Bwijtak was not a party named in the three prior judgments but he now claims to have successor interests to the defendant Jera (also spelled Sera) who was held to be the leroij lablab of the thirteen wato mentioned in the judgment in Civil Action No. 68. Two of the thirteen are those which are the subject of this motion for order in aid of judgment. Bwijtak readily admitted he had not paid the iroij lablab share of the copra he cut and sold from Depdep and Bokanman during the last three years. The reason for this withholding was because of his claim under Jera and the judgment in Civil Action No. 68.

Accepting Bwijtak's statement at its face value, it is evident that he never saw, or understood, or at least failed to recognize the significance of the judgment two years later in Lanjen v. Namilur and Others, supra, which superseded and reversed the holding in No. 68 that Jera was the leroij lablab by the correcting decision that Lanjen was the leroij lablab.

It is clear Iroij lablab Mo is the successor to his mother, Lanjen. The evidence also indicated Rita held alab rights on the two wato and that she paid iroij lablab shares to Mo.

Bwijtak's interest, if any, in the land in question is that of a worker who may cut copra with the permission of the alab and the acquiescence of the iroij lablab. In accordance with the custom, he is required to pay the shares due those holding superior interests.

By his own admission, Bwijtak failed to comply with the court's judgment in Civil Action No. 113. It would be unfair to punish him for contempt for failure to comply with the judgment because Bwijtak actually was in compliance with the earlier judgment of No. 68.

Iroij lablab Mo and Bwijtak agreed and accordingly stipulated to the court that the value of the share withheld from Mo was fifty dollars ($50.0.0). Accordingly, it is

Ordered, that Bwijtak, having been found in contempt of this court's judgment by his failure to comply with it, shall be relieved of punishment by compliance in the future by the payment of iroij lablab copra sales shares to Mo J. and by the payment to Mo J. of the sum of fifty dollars ($50.00) for past withholding.