THE Superior Court yesterday issued a decision that resolved a dispute among relatives over a Chamorro custom that deals about inheritance of property.
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman ruled that the four grandchildren claimants are not entitled to share in the estate of Andres G. Macaranas because they have not established that the custom of poksai is the legal equivalent of an adoption.
Wiseman said poksai is defined as the raising of a child by a non-biological parent as though the child was a natural and legitimate child.
Wiseman explained that the pineksai (children raised through poksai) and biological children often inherit property through the use of a partida.
A partida describes the act by which the male head of a family meets with his biological children and his pineksai and distributes his land prior to his death, the judge said.
“This court holds that the grandchildren have failed to satisfy their burden of proof that they were “children” in the legal sense of Andres and Petra Macaranas,” said the judge, adding that their status remains that of grandchildren under the Probate Code and they will not inherit as “surviving issues” of Andres.
Court records showed that Irene Macaranas Tupas is the biological mother of four children. She was not married when the children were born.
Tupas and the kids lived with her parents-Andres and Petra Macaranas. Andres and Petra provided care and support for the grandchildren while they were growing up.
Andres and Petra also provided care and support for two other grandchildren, their son Richard’s two children—Anthony and Claudia Macaranas.
The four grandchildren were never legally adopted pursuant to statute. Anthony and Claudia were legally adopted.
Petra died in 1996. Tupas did not list the grandchildren as heirs of Petra in an affidavit that was created in an effort to settle the estate.
Petra’s estate was settled. The judgment did not list the four grandchildren as heirs of Petra.
Andres died without a legal will in 1998. The four grandchildren received benefit checks from Andres’ Social Security and they were individually listed as either “sons” or “daughters.”
Last December, an evidentiary hearing was held in court. Attorney Robert T. Torres represented the administrator for the estate of Andres while lawyer Jose Bermudes represented the grandchildren claimants.
Wiseman in his decision pointed out that substantial evidence exists to support the assertion that Andres and Petra raised the grandchildren under the custom of poksai.
The present facts, however, do not indicate that Andres ever made a partida so the grandchildren cannot inherit based upon being classified as pineksai, Wiseman said.
The court, Wiseman said, was not provided with any evidence to support the grandchildren’s assertion that poksai is intended to serve as a customary adoption for purposes of inheriting under the Probate Code.
“This decision does not state, nor is it the court’s intention to implicitly imply that the Chamorro custom of poksai is not equivalent to the Carolinian custom of mwei-mwei,” Wiseman pointed out.
.
