American Samoa § 30.0131 - Transfers of land.

§ 30.0131. Transfers of land.

No corporation or foreign corporation may buy or acquire any interest in land unless the transaction is approved in writing by the Governor and recorded by the Territorial Registrar, and no such acquisition or transfer may be of any effect until so approved and recorded. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any acquisition of land or any interest therein is subject to the restrictions and limitations prescribed by the provisions of 1.0101 et seq. and 1.0201 et seq. and other applicable laws, respecting land or interests therein. For the purposes of this section, a corporation is without race. Reviser’s Comment: The law dealing with alienation of land contained in the A.S.C.A. as recodified by the Legislative Reference Bureau had been questioned as to whether the requirements of Art I, § 3 and Art. II § 9, American Samoa Constitution, had been fulfilled. Since the records were not available to answer the question, the Legislature passed PL 16-88 and PL 17-31 to ensure that the law dealing with alienation of land complies with the Constitution. Case Notes: Territorial statute requiring certain transactions to be “approved in writing by the Governor” was not violated when a Governor signed a lease document and then authorized members of his staff to make certain revisions to the document before it left his office, even though the Governor did not sign the document a second time after the changes were made. A.S.C.A. § 30.0131. American Samoa Government v. Samoa Aviation, Inc., 11 A.S.R.2d 144 (1989).