NELIDA B. Atalig, the surviving spouse of former Justice Pedro Manglona Atalig, has amended her petition to the Superior Court.
Initially, Mrs. Atalig wanted to inherit one-half of her late husband’s 300,509.3 square meters of land.
But she has now changed her request — instead of inheriting the land, she wants a 55-year leasehold interest.
Represented by attorney Joseph Horey, Mrs. Atalig, a non-Northern Marianas Descent person, has amended her petition for partial distribution by withdrawing, without prejudice, her request for an estate in certain properties, and maintaining her petition only to the extent it seeks approval of a leasehold interest in those properties for 55 years.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho will hear the petition on April 22, 2021 at 10 a.m. and ordered Mrs. Atalig’s presence.
The late Justice Atalig, who passed away in February 2005 at the age of 55, owned 15 real estate properties on Saipan and Rota.
Judge Camacho said in return for a 55-year leasehold interest, Mrs. Atalig is giving up a portion of her share of inheritance and she will only get one-third of her late husband’s land.
The judge noted that Mrs. Atalig “assumes (or presumes) that she is entitled to inherit land at all, when there are NMD children who can inherit the land.”
According to the judge, the crux of the issue is: Can a non-NMD surviving spouse inherit half of the husband’s land, then turn around and forego a portion of it as payment of a 55-year lease of the same property that she is claiming to have already inherited from the late husband?
The judge said the CNMI Supreme Court has ruled in the case of the Estate of Tudela 2009 MP 09 that a non-NMD surviving spouse can own land if there are no NMD children who can inherit the land.
“Pedro Atalig had children who are NMD and can inherit land. Pedro had NMD children with Nelida as well as other NMD children from a prior relationship,” the judge noted.
Horey, for his part, said none of the properties listed is ancestor’s land.
“Nelida Atalig, as decedent’s surviving spouse, is statutorily entitled to one-half of all the listed properties, pursuant to 8 CMC § 2903(a),” Horey said.
He added that the properties listed contain a total of 300,509.3 square meters of land, meaning that Mrs. Atalig is statutorily entitled to one-half that amount, or 150,254.65 square meters; or, in the alternative, to an undivided one-half interest in the entire 300,509.3 square meters.
However, Horey said, his client is not a person of NMD, and is therefore not constitutionally eligible to acquire long-term interests in real property in the CNMI, pursuant to Article XII of its Constitution.
At the same time, he said local probate law provides that, “Whenever a person not of NMD takes title to real property under this code, he or she shall take the maximum allowable legal interest in the real property and the remaining interest if any shall vest in the next closest heirs or devisees who can legally take title.”
Horey said the maximum allowable legal interest is a 55-year leasehold interest.
“Nelida Atalig is therefore entitled to a 55-year interest in 150,254.65 square meters,” the lawyer said.
“By this motion, however, she seeks that interest in only 97,389 square meters, and waives any claim to the rest. Nelida does not believe that she is actually under any legal obligation to provide any extra consideration to the Estate in order to take the interest, which she is legally entitled to inherit. Nevertheless, in the interest of facilitating an undisputed resolution of this long-pending matter, she does so, giving up approximately one-third of her total claim to be divided among the other heirs, asking only that her right to the remainder be recognized for 55 years, as a leasehold.”
