Surveyors’ $50,386 claim from an estate denied

Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama yesterday denied two surveyors’ reimbursement claim in the total amount of $50,386 from an estate.

Lizama said he acknowledged that surveyors Alfred K. Pangelinan of Meridian Surveying and Juan I. Castro of Pacific Lands Surveying are entitled to reimbursement for any work that was performed and documented.

Lizama, however, stated that the problem with the surveyors’ claim is that the appropriate source of reimbursement is not the estate of Vicenta Kaipat.

The second problem, the judge noted, is that the surveyors’ documentation is insufficient.

Court records indicate that a plot of land that was originally thought to have been owned by Rita Kaipat was later determined in a 1994 Superior Court ruling to belong to all of the heirs of Vicenta Kaipat, with Rita serving as trustee.

On March 23, 2004, Luis Pelisamen became the administrator for both Rita’s and Vicenta’s estate.

The surveyors, through counsel Antonio M. Atalig, presented evidence during the Nov. 23, 2005 hearing that they were entitled to reimbursement from the Vicenta Kaipat estate.

In denying the surveyors’ claim, Lizama said there are strong indications that Pelisamen’s authorization of the surveying was not made on behalf of Vicenta Kaipat’s estate.

Lizama said Pelisamen and his mother Dolores leased 11,256 square meters of the lot (a little more than one third of the entire lot) to Jo Suk Kon in 1996 for 55 years.

The lease represents that Pelisamen and Rita own the property in fee simple and that they have full right to make the lease.

The lease states that Pelisamen and his mother had already received $100,000 from lessee, and were entitled to an additional $52,000.

Other heirs have claimed that they received no knowledge of this lease and did not get any of the proceeds, the judge said.

Lizama noted that the surveyors commenced work in 1992, 12 years before the estate of Vicenta Kaipat was even probated, and during a time in which Pelisamen was not serving as the administrator of the Rita Kaipat estate.

Lizama said Pelisamen admitted that there was no activity in the probate of Rita’s estate between 1994 and 2004, a time frame which overlaps with the surveying that Pelisamen authorized.

Pelisamen petitioned to be named as administrator to both estates only after any of the documented surveying had already occurred, he said.

Lizama said he never authorized the surveying to be done on behalf of either estate.

Only in 1994, when the work was taken over by Meridian Land Surveying, was the work purported to be done on behalf of the Rita Kaipat estate, he said.

Lizama expressed concern that Pelisamen may have a conflict of interest between his own interests as a lessor, and his interest in maximizing the estates for the benefit of all claimants.

On the documentation issue, the judge pointed out that it is unclear why the work of the surveyors stretched over 10 years, beginning in 1992.

Lizama said the exhibits submitted only account for 32 hours of work on the part of Castro.

Pangelinan, in his affidavit, claims that he spent more than 100 hours of work, the judge said, adding that Pangelinan has not provided of the hours spent at work.

“Neither surveyor has stated his hourly rate. Rather, the surveyors claim $22,040 as ‘overhead and profit’”, Lizama said.

The court’s findings regarding the impropriety of unauthorized and undocumented work will apply to any proceedings raised in the Rita Kaipat case.

Lizama ordered that Luis Pelisamen will ultimately be responsible for the surveyors’ claims if and when the claim cannot be recovered from the Rita Kaipat estate.