In Re: The Estate of Vicente Candelaria Dela Cruz, Deceased. Jose Roberto Dela Cruz v. Jesus Cruz

The question that appellant Jose Cruz attempts to present by this appeal is whether it violated due process for the trial court in his civil case to consider against him his own affidavit that he appended to a motion and submitted to the court, when that affidavit was never admitted into evidence. In order to reach that question, however, we must decide a procedural threshold question that arises from our limited jurisdiction over appeals from the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (“CNMI”). Our review of the decisions of that Court is confined to federal questions. See 48 U.S.C. § 1824 (a); Sonoda v. Cabrera, 189 F.3d 1047, 1050 (9th Cir.1999). We conclude that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal because the decision of the Supreme Court of the CNMI rests on an adequate and independent ground of local (non-federal) law. We accordingly dismiss the appeal.

Factual and Procedural Background

Jesus Cruz filed a petition for letters of administration for the estate of his father, Vicente Cruz, who died intestate in 1943. This petition was filed in the Superior Court of the CNMI. Jesus Cruz’s brother, Jose, filed a motion to strike the petition. In an…