Lizama rejects heirship claim to 2 estates

Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama yesterday rejected the claim of an estate that it has the right to inherit from two estates that received part of the $4.7 million land compensation settlement.

Lizama denied the motion of claimant, estate of Dolores K. Pelisamen, to be recognized as an heir to the estate of Isaac Kaipat.

“Claimant has not convinced the court that the family has actually practiced the custom under which it claims inheritance, or that there even exists a Carolinian method for resolving the family dispute,” the judge said.

In the absence of this evidence, Lizama said, he will follow the precedent set by the CNMI Supreme Court and divide the property equitably among the heirs of Vicenta Kaipat.

Vicenta Kaipat was the mother of Rita, Isaac, and Benigno Kaipat. The Rita Kaipat estate was awarded by the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority $4.7 million in land compensation settlement. The amount was split equally among three estates, Rita, Isaac, and Benigno Kaipat.

Lizama said the heirs of Dolores Pelisamen are already entitled to a one-fifth share of Rita Kaipat’s estate.

The property being distributed to the heirs of Isaac Kaipat and to the heirs of Rita Kaipat stems from the same source.

Lizama said it would be unfair to allow an heir of Vicenta Kaipat estate’s to take twice from the same property.

According to court documents, Isaac Kaipat, one of three children of Vicenta Kaipat, died in 1944. The estates of Vicenta and her children, Rita, Benigno and Isaac, have only recently been probated, following the availability of compensation from a land condemnation.

The Isaac Kaipat estate asserted that the deadline for claims was Oct. 24, 2005.

Dolores Pelisamen’s estate filed its claim in the estate of Vicenta Kaipat (Isaac’s mother) on Oct. 3, 2005. The claim was refiled Jan. 12, 2006 in the Isaac Kaipat estate.

In February 2006, the Isaac Kaipat estate’s administratrix, Mystica Kaipat, denied the claim, asserting untimeliness, unclean hands, and inconsistency with Carolinian custom.

Dolores Pelisamen was the natural-born daughter of Isaac Kaipat. When Isaac died in 1944, Dolores Pelisamen was customarily adopted by Rita Kaipat.

Rita, Isaac’s sister and the only daughter of Vicenta Kaipat, became the trustee of the Kaipat family land located in Chalan Laulau.

Dolores Pelisamen had several children, including Luis Pelisamen, whom the court appointed to be the administrator for the estate of Rita Kaipat.

The heirs of Dolores Pelisamen claimed a share in the estate of both Rita and Isaac. The property sought in both probates is the same: a share in land compensation monies from the CNMI government.

The land, which was condemned for a roadway, was adjudicated to be family land belonging to all the heirs of Vicenta Kaipat.

Dolores Pelisamen’s estate bases its right to inherit from both the Rita Kaipat and Isaac Kaipat estates on a statute, which provides that an “adopted child may also inherit from his natural parents and kindred the same as if no adoption had taken place.”

In his order issued last month, Lizama ordered the estate of Dolores Pelisamen to present expert testimony on the method of inheritance for adopted children in the Carolinian community.

Following the hearing, Lizama said, he will render a decision regarding the right of the Dolores Pelisamen estate to take from both the Rita Kaipat and Isaac Kaipat estates.

In his order yesterday, Lizama said that, after hearing all of the testimony concerning the family dispute and reviewing the findings of the Supreme Court in the Vicente Kaipat case, he has determined that the application of Carolinian custom to the Dolores Pelisamen case is inappropriate.

“Viewing all the testimony together, the court finds that Carolinian customary law provides no mechanism for determining heirship when the decision-makers of a family disagree,” Lizama said.