Court awards
paramount chief title "Satele" to Galu Satele
by La Poasa
Samoa News Staff
The Land and
Titles Division of the High Court has awarded the paramount chief
title "Satele" of Vailoatai to Galu T. Satele.
The 17-page decision
was issued yesterday and signed by Associate Justice Lyle L.
Richmond, Chief Associate Judge Logoai Siaki, and associate judges
Mamea Sala Jr., Saole Mila and Suapaia E.C. Pereira.
(Richmond presided
at trial and other in-court proceedings, and Logoai, Mamea, Saole
and Suapaia made the decision on selecting the title successor,
according to the ruling.)
Being the titular
head title of the Tualatai traditional government (county), the
Satele title has been vacant since the death of the late Satele
Uoka Momoisea Faga in 1996.
The opinion lays
out the Court's reasoning in awarding the title to Galu.
Galu was the
first to file claim to the Satele title with the Territorial
Registrar's Office. Four matai filed counterclaims: Solia La'auli
F. Tosi, Mosooi Mapu, Fuga Tolani Teleso, and Aofetalaiga Francis
F. Leoso.
Trial was held
in October of last year and written closing arguments from all
parties were submitted by Jan. 14, 2008 as required by the Court.
DECISION
The virtue of
the claims of the five men, Galu, Solia, Mosooi, Fuga and Aofetalaiga
were considered according to criteria (priority is given to the
four criteria in the order listed) established by local law:
· hereditary
right
· support
from family clans
· forcefulness,
character, personality and knowledge of Samoan customs, and
· value
to family, village and country
BEST HEREDITARY
RIGHT
The Court decided
to apply the "traditional rule" as opposed to the optional
alternative known as the "Sotoa rule".
(Under traditional
rule, hereditary right is determined by a candidate's relation
(blood tie) to their nearest ancestor that held the title in
question. Under the Sotoa rule, hereditary right is determined
by tracing a candidate's lineage to the original titleholder.)
In applying the
traditional rule, the Court found that Galu, the son of Satele
Mosegi has a 50 percent blood hereditary right to the Satele
title, and prevails on this criterion.
Fuga, as the
grandson of Satele Mosooi II has a 25 percent blood hereditary
right; Aofetalaiga as the great grandson of Satele Pili has 12.5
percent blood hereditary right; Solia, as the great great grandson
of Satele Talafaamalama has a 6.25 percent blood hereditary right;
and Mosooi, as the great great grandson of Satele Talili, has
a 6.25 percent blood hereditary right.
WISH OF THE
FAMILY CLANS
The Court, after
discussing at length the different family histories and clans
presented by the candidates and taking into account all the evidence,
ruled "by preponderance of the evidence that despite spelling
variants, the Satele family has three customary clans: Taeotafa,
Maufaoa and Fatailaumea.
The next step
was for the Court to determine whether any candidate was supported
by two clans. The Court said the based on trial evidence, it
found that Galu is supported by the consensus of his Taeotafa
clan, and Aofetalaiga is supported by the consensus of his Maufaoa
clan.
Other individuals
in the family outside of their respective clans support Galu
or Aofetalaiga, but neither of them has the consensus support
of the Fatailaumea clan.
Solia maintains
that he has the support of the consensus of his "purported"
Saivii clan, but under the evidence, the Court said it did not
find any separate existence of this clan in the family. Solia
is supported by individuals in the family, but not by any of
the three clans in and of itself.
Similarly, the
Court said Mosooi is supported by individuals in the family within
and outside of his Taeotafa clan, but not by any of the three
clans as such. Fuga has the support of this immediate family
members, and, as with all the candidates, of other individuals
in the family, but not by any of the three clans as a clan.
"A candidate
must, of course, have the support of at least two of the three
customary clans of the Satele family to establish the wish of
the majority or plurality of the clans as required [by the law],"
wrote the Court. "No candidate has the support of more than
one of the three customary clans. Accordingly, we find and conclude
that none of the candidates prevails on the second priority customary
clan wish criterion."
FORCEFULNESS,
CHARACTER, PERSONALITY, AND KNOWLEDGE OF SAMOAN CUSTOM
The Court, after
summarizing the candidates' educational and career backgrounds,
says that it finds that the five candidates are "substantially
equal on the third forcefulness, character, personality, and
knowledge of Samoa custom criterion.
"However,
based on his unpresuming, measured and uniform style, and still
vigorous age, we find that Galu ranks a cut above the other four
for purposes of selecting the next Satele titleholder,"
wrote the Court. "Accordingly, we find and conclude that
Galu prevails on this third priority criterion by a slight margin
over the other four candidates."
VALUE TO FAMILY,
VILLAGE AND COUNTRY
The Court's assessment
of the five candidates in this criterion was similar to its evaluation
of the previous criterion. The Court said based on the candidates'
personal histories, "each candidate has significantly contributed
to the interests of his family, village and American Samoa."
"Again we
recognize that each candidate would bring in his own way a distinct
personality and leadership style that would well serve the Satele
family," the Court says. "We therefore find that the
candidates are substantially equal and conclude that no candidate
prevails over the other candidates on the fourth priority value
to family, village and country criterion."
CONCLUSION
The Land and
Titles Division of the High Court awarded the paramount chief
title "Satele" of Vailoatai to Galu T. Satele based
on the first priority best hereditary right criterion and by
a narrow margin on the third priority criterion of forcefulness,
character and personality and knowledge of Samoan customs. No
candidate prevailed over the second criterion and on the fourth
criterion, the candidates are equal.
Galu was represented
by Sharron Rancourt; Solia by Marie A. Alailima; Mosooi by Tauivi
Tuinei; Fuga by Isa Lei Iuli; and Aofetalaiga by Asaua Fuimaono.
Reach the
reporter at la@samoanews.com.
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