KOROR (Palau Horizon) – An owner of the land on which the Koror Elementary School is situated loses her claim to the property for failure to file counterclaims in earlier suit filed by the republic against her family.
In a civil appeal no. 09-027, the appellate division ruled in favor of the lower court when Theresia Olkeriil’s claim were barred because she did not raise her claims to the land as compulsory counterclaims in an earlier civil action.
In 1999, the Ministry of Education sought to enjoin the Olkeriils from trespassing on its land and to eject them and their house and buildings from its land however the Trial Division ruled in favor of the Olkeriils.
The Olkeriils however did not immediately filed a counterclaim when the lower court entered a judgment in their favor instead the claim was made in a separate civil suit last year.
The opinion saved the MOE or the school from being ejected from the property of the Olkeriils.
The court case said that the same piece of land at issue in the current suit was already resolved in the 1999 suit.
Olkeriil argued that the 1999 suit only involved the plot of land on which her house was physically situated and that the 2009 suit involves the portion where the school is situated and she wanted MOE to be ejected from her land.
“Olkeriil’s current suit is related to the same transaction or occurrence as the 1999 suit-it involves a contest between the same parties over ownership over the same tract of land. Because Olkeriil failed to bring her claims as counterclaims in the earlier suit bars a party from bringing them now,” the 12-page opinion stated.
//
