Estate of Jamie Grandere, 55 IBIA 128 (2012)

• Court: Interior Board of Indian Appeals

INTERIOR BOARD OF INDIAN APPEALS Estate of Jamie Grandere 55 IBIA 128 (06/20/2012)

United States Department of the Interior

OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS INTERIOR BOARD OF INDIAN APPEALS 801 NORTH QUINCY STREET SUITE 300 ARLINGTON, VA 22203

ESTATE OF JAMIE GRANDERE

Order Docketing and Dismissing Appeal Docket No. IBIA 12-082 June 20, 2012

Carroll Taylor Mattinson, Jr. (Appellant) appealed to the Board of Indian Appeals (Board) from an Order Denying Petition for Rehearing (Rehearing Order) entered by Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Thomas F. Gordon in the estate of Appellant’s mother Jamie Grandere (Decedent).1 The ALJ concluded that the trust real property interest in Decedent’s estate, a 0.0102880658 (i.e., one percent, rounded) undivided fractional interest in California Public Domain Allotment 50L M1, passed in full to her oldest daughter, Caroline Taylor Guerrero (Guerrero), pursuant to the “single heir rule” in the American Indian Probate Reform Act (AIPRA) that applies to trust real property interests that constitute less than a five percent interest in an allotment.2 Appellant’s notice of appeal asserted that the ALJ’s decision is not fair and that the property should be divided in equal shares among all of Decedent’s children. As a preliminary matter, the Board ordered Appellant to complete service of his appeal on the ALJ and other interested parties in this matter, as required by 43 C.F.R.1

[1]. The Rehearing Order was issued on March 12, 2012, and left in place the ALJ’s initial November 8, 2011, Decision (Decision). Decedent, who was also known as Lorrie Mattinson and Lora Jane Martinez, was a Luiseño Mission (Pala Band) – California Indian. The probate number assigned to Decedent’s case in the Department of the Interior’s probate tracking system, ProTrac, is No. P000070213IP.

2

In relevant part, AIPRA provides: [A]ny trust or restricted interest in land in the decedent’s estate that is not disposed of by a valid will and represents less than 5 percent of the entire undivided ownership of the parcel of land of which such interest is a part . . . shall descend . . . to . . . the decedent’s surviving child, . . . and if 2 or more surviving children are eligible heirs, then to the oldest of such children. 25 U.S.C. § 2206(a)(2)(D)(iii)(I). 55 IBIA 128

§§ 4.310(b) and 4.323, and to notify the Board that he had done so. In addition, because Appellant’s notice of appeal did not appear to allege any grounds upon which the Board could...