The Land Court has declared that the grant of a tax allotment was illegally cancelled and ordered the Minister to re-instate the land immediately.
Schumway Mataele claimed that a tax allotment, Lot 92 in the estate of the Crown Prince Tupouto’a at ‘Utulau had lawfully been granted to him by the Minister of Lands in 2016.
Mataele said the Minister then unlawfully granted it to ‘Uluaki-o Vaiola Manu.
Mataele told the court he was the second eldest of the legitimate sons of one named Malakai Tokuolava Mataele but commonly called Hameti Mataele. Because the eldest son, Peni, had been taken and fostered by Hawaiians in Hawai’i, he was then the heir to Hameti Mataele’s land.
He said that Hameti Mataele made him the heir by giving him the land which had been gifted to him by the then Crown Prince Tupouto’a at his estate of ‘Utulau. He said that he moved to the United States in 1984, but after Hameti died he came to Tonga to register the land in his name in 2015.
Manu told the court the tax allotment had been given to him by the estateholder in 1971 and that he had been cultivating it as his tax allotment until he applied for grant of it, with the consent of the estateholder in 2018. He said the Minister of Lands lawfully granted it to him and issued to him his deed of grant.
The Registrar of Lands, Semisi Moala, said that in August 2012, they received a letter from Hameti Mataele stating that Crown Prince Tupouto’a had told his matapule, To’a Malikini, to go with him and survey his allotment and to have it in his name, and that he wanted that allotment to be given to his son, the plaintiff.
On September 30, 2016, the Minister directed that a deed of grant of the plaintiff be prepared for Lot 92.
However, he said that later the deed of grant was found to have not been signed by the Minister. The deed had two lines running diagonally across it with the word “cancel” written in between the two lines, signed by the chief draftsman, Sione Leki, and dated February 7, 2017.
He said that there was no Ministerial direction given for that cancellation.
Judge Niu said the key issue was whether the land under dispute was being farmed at the time of the application. Manu claimed he was growing manioke on it.
However, the judge found the evidence showed the land as not being used.
He said the cancellation of the granting of the land was unlawful because only the Land court had the right to take this action. It was also a breach of natural justice.
Judge Niu ordered that the Minister of Lands cancel the deed of grant in the name of ‘Uluaki-o Vaiola Manu and issue a new deed of grant to replace the cancelled deed of grant of the plaintiff, Schumway Mataele, and to have it registered.
He ordered the Minister to pay Mataele’s costs.
