The Land Court of Tonga has prevented a man from evicting his aunty from his registered land in Ma'ufanga. The man’s Aunt (52) had been living on the town allotment for all of her life. The court ordered the Minister of Lands to cancel the man’s deed of grant over the property after it was ruled that the Minister and his officers did not make sufficient enquiries into the availability of the land before it was registered to the nephew.

The ruling was made last week, on August 7 following the hearings in July before Lord Chief Justice Paulsen, the President of the Land Court of Tonga and assessor.

The case concerned the plaintiff, Lata 'i Fatai Palelei Lenati, who wanted a court order to cancel her nephew’s grant of deed over the land that she and her family were living on. The defendant – the nephew – wanted to evict his aunty from the property so that he could build on it.

The court ruling (LA 16 of 2017) stated that the nephew, the first defendant Siosifa Palelei, registered the land from the Ministry of Lands in July of 2016. This was two years after the nephew’s father Paula Palelei decided to surrender the land in 2014. The nephew intended to build on the land and told his aunty to leave the property in December of last year 2016.

As his aunty continued to occupy the property, the nephew’s lawyers wrote to his aunty in March of this year, giving her 14 days to vacate the land or “…they would proceed to Court and lock up the house to prevent her and her family from entering it”.

The plaintiff sought an order to cancel her nephew’s registration on the basis that she had been living on the land her whole life and was not consulted by the Minister of Lands before the grant was made and registration completed.

After assessing the case, the Land Court supported the claim by the plaintiff and directed the Minister of Land to cancel the nephew’s deed of grant.

The Land Court ruled that the plaintiff was uninformed of her nephew’s land registration until December of last year, and that the Ministry of Lands was unaware that the allotment was occupied and that it was not inspected before it was granted to the nephew.

The Land Court stated, “The Ministry should then have investigated what was happening on the land and undertaken an inspection…”.

It was concluded that the Minister of Lands did not discharge his duties to make reasonable enquiries on the availability of the land.

It was also concluded that the nephew had concealed his intentions from his aunty.

The court established the facts of the relationships.

The father of the plaintiff was Siaosi Palelei. Siaosi had two daughters by his first wife and four daughters by his second wife, 'Uheina Paleli. The plaintif (Lata) is the second daughter of Siaosi's marriage to 'Uheina. Siaosi also had an illegitimate son name Paula Palelei. Paula has three sons. The first defendant (Siosifa) is Paula's youngest son. Lata and Paula are half siblings, therefore Lata is Siosifa's aunt.

Counsel, Mrs P. Tupou appeared for the plaintiff. Counsel Mr S. H. Taione and Mr S. Tu'utafaiva repesented the first defendant with Mrs 'E Langi for the second defendant.