The Supreme Court has confirmed the status of Namu’a Island on the coast of Aleipata which was secured and registered over 100 years ago and unchallengeable. 

The legal challenge against the government of Samoa questioned the ownership of the island under the custody of the state. 

The applicant is Tu’isila Maluafiti Fagasoia Tu’isila of New Zealand who sued the government and the Public Trustee as the second respondent as the executor of the estate of Salaevalu Tuisila Ulberg. 

The applicant claims no legally valid step removed Namu’a out of the native title that it was originally under, held by the then Tu’isila from time to time; and there was no valid transaction taken resulting with Namu’a in the hands of the German State.

The argument advanced by the applicant claims the vesting of the ownership of Namu’a Island in the government is unlawful based on a chain of title that was invalid and in breach of the Constitution. 

Subsequently, the lease granted by the government over Namu’a is invalid said the applicant. 

The government opposed the claim on grounds that any ‘native claim to Namu’a by the Tu’isila title was extinguished by various judgments of the Mixed Court, the Land Commission, and the Supreme Court in 1895. 

The second respondent is of the view that the government is the registered owner of Namu’a as public land and the lease to Salaevalu Tuisila Ulberg was lawful and valid. 

In her reserved decision, Justice Niava Mata Tuatagaloa dismissed the claim noting any claim by the Tuisila family to Namu’a is statute barred. 

“The registered legal status of Namu’a was secured by due process over 100 years ago and in the words of the Court of Appeal in the case of Sia’aga is “now unchallengeable” the Court ruled.   

“The Supreme Court by vesting ownership of Namu’a to Peter Laban in 1895 would, in terms of the Samoa Constitutional Order 1920, have transferred Namu’a out, of native or customary title. In other words, it extinguished any native title claim to Namu’a.” 

The Court said the undisputed facts of the case as pleaded in the plaintiff’s claim are that the original mortgagee Peter Laban successfully lodged a claim over Namu’a Island in 1894 with the Samoa Land Commission and the Supreme Court, a procedure established by the 1889 Berlin Act.  

Despite objection by the Applicants predecessors in title, Laban was granted ownership over Namu’a in 1895 by Court Grant 167.” 

Namu’a Island is one of four small islands in the Aleipata island grouping.