By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

A CIVIL case litigation involving alleged land grabbing in a Gun Beach property ended yesterday after a Superior Court judge issued a decision in favor of Calvo’s Insurance and Bayview Hotel management.
The dispute started when former Sen. Ted Nelson filed a petition to reopen the estate of Juan De Torres Espinosa Sr., his great-great grandfather, to probate the property, also known as Gogna or Estate 49.
Nelson, through his lawyer Stephanie Flores, argued that despite the consolidation of Estate 49 with Estate 421 by the 1981 Decree of Land Registration, the ownership of Gogna remains with the Juan De Torres Espinosa Sr. Estate.
The petitioner claim arises from the return of excess United States military property to ancestral owners.
Nelson, however, acknowledged that "no deed was ever issued by the Guam Ancestral Land Commission."
The court agreed with intervenors, Calvo’s Insurance and Bayview, and ruled that Estate 49 is not newly discovered as the heirs of Juan De Torres Espinosa Sr. had knowledge of its existence and a possible claim of ownership before the Decree of Final Distribution was entered on Sept. 29, 1998.
Judge Katherine Maraman stated that petitioner failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that Estate 49 is newly discovered property.
Citing the Guam Land’s Title Registration Law, the court also ruled that Calvo’s Insurance falls within the protected classes as an initial registrant.
"Although the petitioner had general notice of the initial registration proceeding, petitioner failed to assert the estate and his claim of interest at that time or within one year of the 1981 Decree of Land Registration, thus the estate’s claim to an interest in Estate 49 is now barred by the decree," Judge Maraman stated.
The court also ruled that Bayview falls within a protected class and a bonafide purchaser of the property.