Hana Ranch, Inc. v. Kanakaole

672 P.2d 550, 66 Haw. 643, 1983 Haw. LEXIS 159
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1983
DocketNO. 8878
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 672 P.2d 550 (Hana Ranch, Inc. v. Kanakaole) 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
Hana Ranch, Inc. v. Kanakaole, 672 P.2d 550, 66 Haw. 643, 1983 Haw. LEXIS 159 (haw 1983).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

PADGETT, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment which held that the 1 / 20th interest in Royal Patent 2930, Apanas 1 and 2, originally granted to Kaholokahiki, was vested in the appellee James Flores and not in the appellant, Hana Ranch, Inc.

This is the second time this case has been before the Hawaii appellate courts. The previous opinion in this matter was rendered by the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Hana Ranch v. Kanakaole, 1 Haw. App. 573, 623 P.2d 885 (1981).

With respect to the 1 / 20th share originally granted to Kaholokahiki, the first trial court judgment was in favor of the present appellant. The Intermediate Court of Appeals, finding that the original finding of fact no. 27 (that Hana Ranch had established record title to the share in question) was [645]*645erroneous, and that there was a conflict between that finding and finding no. 30 (holding that neither the present appellee nor the appellant had established record title to the property in question), remanded the case for a determination of who had title to that share. It stated:

On remand, the court below should determine what title, if any, of Flores to the Kaholokahiki share and if it determines that he has any title, then in passing upon the issue of adverse possession, it should apply the tests laid down in Bennett, supra.

1 Haw. App. at 580. The reference, of course, is to City and County of Honolulu v. Bennett, 57 Haw. 195, 552 P.2d 1380 (1976).

In that case, this Court stated:

[W]e note that sometimes a cotenant in possession will claim that, during the statutory period, he was ignorant of cotenancy and didn’t even suspect that a cotenancy might exist.... Ignorance, however, is not necessarily good faith. Where a cotenant claims adversely, the standard of good faith includes an objective requirement of reasonableness, in addition to a subjective requirement that the claimant believe himself to be the sole owner. Thus, as stated supra, in order to meet the good faith standard, the Bennetts must prove either (1) that they or their predecessors gave actual notice to McAulton or his predecessors that possession was adverse to them, or (2) that one of the exceptional circumstances enumerated supra eliminated the requirement of actual notice: i.e., that there had been no reason for the tenants in possession (the Bennetts or predecessors) to suspect the existence of a cotenancy; or, if they had suspected a cotenancy, that they made a good faith, reasonable effort to inform the tenants out of possession that the land was claimed adversely to them; or that the tenants out of possession already had actual knowledge, from other sources, that the land was being claimed adversely to them. Whether or not the Bennetts reasonably believed that there was no cotenancy, or, if they did suspect a cotenancy, whether or not they made reasonable efforts to notify their cotenants, would be questions for the trier of fact, to be decided in light of all the facts and circumstances of the [646]*646case. . . .

57 Haw. at 210-211 (emphasis in original).

In the original trial, John Hanchett, as manager for the present appellant, had testified that appellant fenced the land in question in 1950 and maintained possession thereof thereafter. He further testified that with the exception of the five per cent interest coming down from Kapule, appellant was unaware of any other cotenants. The Kapule share, in appellant’s view, had come down to the Sentinella family and appellant had leased the property across the years from the Sentinellas.

He admitted that no actual notice to any other cotenants of the claim of title by adverse possession had been given prior to the commencement of the proceedings in 1977. He stated that until he had begun to research the records with respect to title, a year to 18 months before the commencement of the action, he had been unaware of the fact that there might be other cotenants and this accounted for not giving them any notice of a claim by adverse possession.

The appellant had sought to prove its record title to the land by introducing a series of deeds from various people of various fractional interests in the land in question across a 50-year period, the last one being dated 1951.

The record title claim of appellant to the Kaholokahiki share was based upon two documents: A deed from Malie to Lono Kepano dated September 6,1883 and a deed from Lono Kepano to Benjamin dated August 14,1905. The Intermediate Court of Appeals ( in overturning the original lower court finding no. 27 that Hana Ranch had established a record title to the Kaholokahiki share by these deeds) pointed out that contrary to finding no. 27, the deed from Malie recited only that she was the wife of Kaholokahiki, not that she was the wife and heir of Kaholokahiki as finding 27 stated. Wives then, as now, were not necessarily heirs or sole heirs. Since the evidence introduced had not established who Kaholokahiki’s heirs were, the Intermediate Court of Appeals reversed for further hearings. After a hearing, the lower court ruled that appellant had no record interest in the share and appellee had record title.

As for the original holding that appellant had established title to the Kaholokahiki share by adverse possession, the [647]*647Intermediate Court of Appeals, in its opinion, stated:

[U]nder the principles laid down in City and County of Honolulu v. Bennett, 57 Haw. 195, 552 P.2d 1380(1976), Conclusion of Law Nos. 5 and 7 establishing title in Hana Ranch, Ltd. on the basis of adverse possession would have to be reversed with respect to the Kaholokahiki share in the premises.
This is so because Hana Ranch or its predecessors took possession of the premises knowing that there were at least some co-tenants of some of the shares. Granted that it did not know of the Flores’ claim, nevertheless, the deed from which it traced its interest could be found to be sufficient to have alerted it to the possibility of there being other heirs, for at least two reasons: One, the deed was for only one acre while the 1 / 20th interest was equivalent to nine acres, raising a question as to the ownership of the remaining eight acres, and two, the deed was from a widow and contained no recitals about her being the sole heir or there being a lack of children of the grantee. Hana Ranch admits that no actual notice of a claim adverse to them was given to any possible co-tenants and we see nothing to indicate that there was anything in the circumstances to excuse such notice.

1 Haw. App. at 580.

The court then remanded the case. At the time of the original trial, it was apparent from the deeds of the Kaholokahiki share upon which appellant relied that there might be other cotenants. Appellant also knew of the Sentinella share and was not claiming adversely to the Sentinellas.

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Bluebook (online)
672 P.2d 550, 66 Haw. 643, 1983 Haw. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hana-ranch-inc-v-kanakaole-haw-1983.