Matao C. Yokeno v. Ramon C. Mafnas

Ramon Mafnas appeals the district court’s entry of summary judgment against him in Matao Yokeno’s action to quiet title to a leasehold interest in real property located on the island of Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI or Commonwealth). We conclude that summary judgment was improper because the district court’s subject matter jurisdiction over Yokeno’s claim has not been established. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment and remand.

BACKGROUND

The underlying property dispute in this case centers on a provision of the CNMI Constitution which restricts acquisition of certain interests in land — permanent freehold interests and leasehold interests exceeding fifty-five years — to persons, of Northern Marianas deseént; CNMI Const., art. XII, §§ 1, 3. The property transactions in question represent an attempt to comply with the letter of the constitutional restriction by severing the freehold interest from the leasehold interest while giving the lessee power to designate a freehold grantee of CNMI descent. The plaintiff, Matao Yokeno, is Japanese. He is the leaseholder of a 55-year lease in a parcel of land at San Roque, Saipan, originally owned by the…