Ah Cook v. Masunaga Kasaku

27 Haw. 362, 1923 Haw. LEXIS 44
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 16, 1923
DocketNo. 1474
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 27 Haw. 362 (Ah Cook v. Masunaga Kasaku) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ah Cook v. Masunaga Kasaku, 27 Haw. 362, 1923 Haw. LEXIS 44 (haw 1923).

Opinion

[363]*363OPINION OF THE COURT BY

PETERS, C. J.

Plaintiff on June 6, 1922, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 154, R. L. 1915, applied to the district magistrate of Lahaina, Maui, to be restored to the possession of certain lands or tenements of which, as he alleged, the defendants, one as lessee thereof for a term of years under a written lease from plaintiff to him, and the others as sublessees thereunder, held possession without right after determination of such tenancy by reason of the forfeiture thereof due to the failure of the lessee to effect fire insurance in a certain sum upon the improvements on the demised premises as required of the lessee in and by said lease. On August 23d following, presumably upon trial had, the magistrate rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff and against the defendants for restitution of the demised premises and ordered a writ of possession to issue accordingly. The defendants duly appealed from the said judgment to the circuit court of the second circuit and a jury. The notice of appeal is dated August 25, 1922, and on the same day the magistrate signed a certificate of appeal wherein he certified that “* * * an appeal from said judgment was duly noted * * * to the circuit court of the second circuit * * * and a jury, from the judgment as set forth in said defendants’ notice of appeal hereto attached and made a part hereof * * * and that said appeal has since been duly perfected.” On August 25, 1922, there was also issued by the magistrate a writ of possession and plaintiff was put into possession of the demised premises on the same day.

Thereafter, on December 5, 1922, plaintiff moved the circuit court to dismiss defendants’ appeal upon the grounds that by reason of the issuance and execution of said writ of possession the relation of landlord and tenant as set forth in the complaint was on the 25th of August, 1922, duly canceled and annulled; that said relation of landlord and tenant having been canceled and annulled [364]*364the circuit court was without jurisdiction to hear and determine the canse upon appeal and finally that the defendants were not entitled by law on their appeal to a trial de novo upon the facts and issues tried in the district court. The defendants answered plaintiff’s motion to dismiss alleging that before the writ of possession was issued defendants’ notice of appeal was duly and regularly filed, all costs paid and a bond filed as required by law, and contended that they had no notice of any motion for the issuance of the writ of possession and that its issuance was therefore void npon the authority of Ahulii v. Yip Lan, 22 Haw. 708. Whether the defendants’ appeal was perfected before or after the issuance of the writ of possession does not appear. But we do not consider the order in time of the perfection of the appeal and the issuance of the writ material.

The motion to dismiss was denied by the circuit court and its action thereon is before us for review upon an interlocutory bill of exceptions allowed therefrom.

■ The plaintiff contends that under the provisions of sections 2762 and 2763, R. L. 1915, an appeal duly perfected from a judgment of a district magistrate in favor of the plaintiff lessor in a proceeding for summary possession, under chapter 154, R. L. 1915, does not operate as an arrest of judgment or a stay of execution except where the proceeding is for the nonpayment of rent, when a stay may be had by the appellant complying with the provisions of section 2762, R. L. 1915, and that this not being the case of a proceeding for the nonpayment of rent, the writ of possession rightfully issued and upon its issuance pursuant to the provisions of section 2761, R. L. 1915, the relation of landlord and tenant between the parties wras “canceled and annulled” and having been canceled and annulled, the relation of landlord and tenant ceased to [365]*365exist and ousted the circuit court of jurisdiction to hear the cause on appeal de novo.

The difficulty with the situation is that plaintiff’s premise is incorrect. According to the allegations of his complaint the relation of landlord and tenant ceased to exist upon his reentry upon the demised premises and the resumption of his first and former state therein for breach of the covenant by the lessee to effect fire insurance upon the improvements on the demised premises. Jurisdiction of the district magistrate attached upon the showing that the relation of landlord and tenant existed prior to the accrual to the landlord of the right to possession, — not that it exists at the time of the filing of the complaint. If it existed at the time of the filing of the complaint the landlord would not be entitled to summary possession of the premises. It is upon the theory that the relation of landlord and tenant existed and that the lessee is holding possession of the demised premises without right after the determination of the tenancy by reason of a forfeiture under the conditions or covenants of the lease, that the district magistrate obtained jurisdiction in summary proceedings at the instance of the landlord and the object of the proceeding is to summarily restore the landlord to possession which the lessee by breach of his c.ovenant has forfeited and the landlord by reason of the right of reentry and entry is entitled to recover.

The judgment in summary possession proceedings is for the possession of the premises demanded and constitutes a judicial determination of the plaintiff’s right to possession as alleged in the complaint. Where, as here, reentry is made for breach of covenant of an existing lease, its effect is to cancel and annul the relation of landlord and tenant previously existing between the parties. The writ of possession is merely the process of the court by which the judgment is executed. The express [366]*366definition of the effect of its issuance contained in section 2761, R. L. 1915, clothes it with no greater attributes than it possesses by reason of the judgment upon which it is predicated. Were the writ granted by statute without defining its effect, it would be no less efficacious. The judgment would fix the status of the parties to the action. And yet it would not be seriously contended that under that state of the case by reason of the effect of the judgment appellants would have no standing in the appellate court for the reason that the judgment canceled and annulled the pre-existing relation of landlord and tenant upon which the jurisdiction of the magistrate depended.

Plaintiff upon judgment in his favor was unquestionably entitled to a writ of possession without any notice to defendants and notwithstanding their appeal. Section 2510, R. L. 1915, does not apply. The court in the Ahulii case failed to consider section 3A, act 95, S. L. 1905, carried into the 1915 revision as section 2763, R. L. 1915, and it was incorrectly decided. But the issuance of the writ did not operate to deprive the appellants of their rights under their appeal theretofore taken and pérfected.

Section 2507, R. L. 1915, grants generally the right of appeal to the circuit court of the same circuit with a jury “from all decisions of district magistrates in all matters, whether civil or criminal.” Section 2271, R. L. 1915, reposes in the circuit courts jurisdiction “Of all causes, civil or criminal, that may properly come before them on appeal from any other court according to law.” The defendants duly perfected their appeal and unless sections 2761, 2762 and 2763 provide to the contrary, are entitled to a trial before the circuit court de novo

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Bluebook (online)
27 Haw. 362, 1923 Haw. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ah-cook-v-masunaga-kasaku-haw-1923.