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Honolulu federal court found to be “improper” venue for Salemeana’i Family lawsuit

U.S. Federal District Court House, Honolulu, HI
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The federal lawsuit brought by the “Salemeana’i Family” in American Samoa against the U.S Secretary of Interior, over family land in Tafuna, has been dismissed without prejudice, allowing plaintiffs to re-file the claim with the proper federal court jurisdiction, according to the latest court filings.

Plaintiffs claimed, among other things, that the communal family land adjacent to the Pago Pago International Airport, was improperly taken from them by the American Samoa Government and endorsed through a High Court ruling. (See Samoa News edition Mar. 15th for details.)

Late last month, plaintiffs and the defense filed a joint motion saying that the parties “agree for the purpose of in-personam jurisdiction” that plaintiffs reside in American Samoa and the defendant’s office is located in Washington D.C.

(According to Wikipedia,  “in-personam “ or personal jurisdiction is a court's jurisdiction over the parties, as determined by the facts in evidence, which bind the parties to a lawsuit, as opposed to subject-matter jurisdiction, which is jurisdiction over the law involved in the suit.)

Furthermore, all of the claims and allegations took place in American Samoa and all the plaintiffs and witnesses reside in American Samoa.

Therefore, the Federal District Court of Hawai’i lacks personal jurisdiction over the parties, according to the parties joint filings, which moved that the case be transferred to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington D.C.

In a May 10 order, U.S District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson in Honolulu “dismissed the case without prejudice for improper venue… to re-filing in an appropriate forum.”

Specifically, Judge Watson finds that hearing the case at the Honolulu federal court is “improper” venue under provision of federal code, which — according to the order — provides that, in a civil action, such as this one, where a defendant is an officer of the U.S government, acting in his or her official capacity, the action may be brought in any judicial district in which: a defendant resides; a substantial part of the events giving rise to the action occurred; or a plaintiff resides if real property is not involved in the action.

In this particular case, the sole defendant resides in Washington D.C., the events giving rise to this action took place in American Samoa, and all plaintiffs reside in American Samoa, according to the order, which also noted that the federal district of Hawai‘i is the answer to none of the three questions posed by the federal law.

It also mentioned briefly the presence (or lack there of) of a federal court in American Samoa.

The complaint identified the plaintiffs — Sefulu Kelemete, Faataaga Fealofai, Nofo M. Kelemete, Toloumu Toloumu Jr., and Toreka Brown — who are represented by Honolulu attorneys Michael Jay Green and Peter C. Hsieh.

As of last Friday, this case was closed at the federal court in Honolulu and there is no public record of the case being re-filed as yet at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.