Lobok v Trust Territory [1986] TTLawRp 5; 8 TTR 554 (28 October 1986)

8 TTR 554

BERTINO LOBOK, BERTINA ALLENSO and BAM ERUKDRIK,

Personal Representatives and Parents of Iram Allenso, Deceased, Appellants

v.

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, Appellee

Civil Appeal No. 421

Appellate Division of the High Court

Marshall Islands District

October 28, 1986

Appeal of judgment on the pleadings, in wrongful death action against Trust Territory Government, holding that action was time-barred. The Appellate Division of the High Court, per curiam, held that Trusteeship Agreement is not an equitable trust that would toll the statute of limitations, and wrongful death action was therefore properly dismissed.

1. Limitation of Actions-Trust Territory Government

Trial court properly held that Trusteeship Agreement did not confer trustee-beneficiary duties upon the Trust Territory Government, and therefore that wrongful death claim against Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands was barred by two-year statute of limitations. 6 TTC § 203 (2).

2. Appeal and Error-Precedents

Appellate Division of the High Court follows the policy of stare decisis in standing by its precedents on reasoned settled points of law, especially when the departure from this policy has no basis in the law.

Counsel for Appellants:	DONALD R. HAZELWOOD, ESQ.,
		Saipan
Counsel for Appellee:	WILLIAM S. MOUNT, ESQ., Assistant
		Attorney General, TTPI, Saipan

Before MIYAMOTO, Associate Justice, HEFNER^[1], Associate Justice

PER CURIAM

Appellants' minor son was killed on November 17, 1981; when a World War II ordnance exploded while the child was at play on "Third Island," Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Appellants did not file their wrongful death complaint until three and a half years later on May 20, 1985.