Souza v. Estate of Bishop

594 F. Supp. 1480, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22961
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedOctober 5, 1984
DocketCiv. 79-0339
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 594 F. Supp. 1480 (Souza v. Estate of Bishop) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Souza v. Estate of Bishop, 594 F. Supp. 1480, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22961 (D. Haw. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

RUSSELL E. SMITH, District Judge.

BACKGROUND

This case, in which motions and cross-motions for summary judgment have been filed, presents difficult problems relating to land usage in Hawaii. The Hawaii Legislature has been considering these problems for over two decades and in 1967 enacted the Hawaiian Land Reform Act (Act), Hawaii Rev.Stat., ch. 516, which permits the State under some circumstances to condemn the fee of leased lands and transfer the fee to the lessees of the land. The Supreme Court of the United States in Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, — U.S. —, 104 S.Ct. 2321, 81 L.Ed.2d 186 (1984), held that the State land oligopoly, traceable to the monarch, could be regulated and that the Act was constitutional.

In this case the plaintiffs Chun and Merseberg seek relief from the defendants under the Sherman and Clayton Acts, and their Hawaii equivalents and the Hawaii Fair Trade Statutes, because of dealings with the Bishop Estate. 1 In 1966 Chun and Merseberg leased separate residential sites *1482 in the Halawa Valley Estates on Oahu. The Bishop Estate owned the land and leased it to American Factors, which in turn subleased it. Ultimately one Ujimori built houses on the land, and it was he who dealt with the plaintiffs here. The plaintiffs entered into two separate agreements — one for the purchase from Ujimori of the house and the off-site improvements and the other for the lease of the land. Except for the names and dates, the plaintiffs’ leases are identical. Parties to the leases are the Bishop Estate and a joint venture consisting of Central Oahu Land Company and Hawaiian Pacific Industries, lessors, and the plaintiffs, lessees. The terms of the leases are 55 years. The lease rents are $165 per year for forty years; the rents for the remaining fifteen years are to be determined by agreement or by arbitration. There are options to extend the leases, and the rents during the periods of extension are to be similarly determined by agreement or by arbitration. The arbitrations are to some extent controlled by specific formulae. The plaintiffs are to pay all taxes and levies for special improvements, and at the end of the term are privileged to remove all buildings. The effect of all of this is that upon the termination of the leases the lands together with all off-site improvements will revert to the Bishop Estate.

The plaintiffs’ transactions were typical of the manner in which the Bishop Estate lands were subdivided and sold, and while the Bishop Estate played no active role in the subdivision of the lands, the construction of off-site improvements, and the construction of the houses, it is clear that the Bishop Estate orchestrated all that was done.

A jury might find that most people desiring to buy homesites on Oahu could not readily find fee land which they could acquire or lease land upon which they themselves could build. A jury might likewise find that the Bishop Estate developed its land as it did because it believed that, for tax and other reasons, it was economically advantageous to lease the land rather than to sell it. A jury might also find that these practices resulted in excessive prices and that the Bishop Estate was motivated by profit.

Assuming that the Bishop Estate plan is antisocial, results in excessive prices, and that on the expiration of the leases many leaseholders will suffer some hardship, still the question remains: Were the antitrust laws violated?

THE MONOPOLIZATION CLAIM

In 1966 Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2, read: “Every person who shall monopolize ... any part of the trade or commerce among the several States ... shall be deemed guilty of' a misdemeanor

Hawaii Rev.Stat. § 480-9 reads: “No person shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce in any commodity in any section of the State.”

Assuming for purposes of this opinion that the sections of the federal and Hawaii statutes dealing with monopolization apply to land, 2 still the rationale of the monopoly cases is difficult to apply when the subject of the monopoly is land. The ordinary antitrust case involves dealings for goods. The market in cameras, for example, is the *1483 combined willingness of all people to. buy cameras. That combined willingness to buy may vary as the quality and price vary. The theory is that competition is healthy and results in lower prices. Each competitor’s share of the market depends upon his price and quality. As a competitor’s share of the market increases, the share of some of his competitors decreases. One competitor with market power may create impediments which prevent other competitors from entering the market. Not so when the subject matter is land. The quality of land is finite. That quantity does not increase or decrease as the price fluctuates. Landowners may compete in price, and one may sell more land than another at a given time; but normally what one landowner does with his own land does not prevent any other landowner from doing what he will with his own land.

An owner of land has monopoly power over his land. He may charge for it what he will or withhold it from the market if he so desires. He is under no compulsion to use the land for the public benefit or sell it at a price that someone can afford to pay. I think it obvious that the ownership of land is not in itself illegal despite the monopoly power that goes with it.

Historically the Bishop Estate has been the largest landowner in Oahu. Mere size, however, does not make a monopoly illegal. United States v. International Harvester Co., 274 U.S. 693, 708, 47 S.Ct. 748, 753, 71 L.Ed. 1302 (1927); United States v. United States Steel Corp., 251 U.S. 417, 451, 40 S.Ct. 293, 299, 64 L.Ed. 343 (1920); Deesen v. Professional Golfers’ Association, 358 F.2d 165, 171 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 846, 87 S.Ct. 72, 17 L.Ed.2d 76 (1966); United States v. Aluminum Co., 148 F.2d 416, 430 n. 2 (2d Cir.1945); Bailey’s Bakery, Ltd. v. Continental Baking Co., 235 F.Supp. 705, 718 (D.Hawaii 1964), aff’d, 401 F.2d 182 (9th Cir.1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1086, 89 S.Ct. 874, 21 L.Ed.2d 779 (1969).

I conclude, therefore, that the monopoly power enjoyed by the Bishop Estate over its own vast lands was not in itself illegal, notwithstanding the language in United States v. Griffith, 334 U.S. 100, 68 S.Ct. 941, 92 L.Ed. 1236 (1948).

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Bluebook (online)
594 F. Supp. 1480, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/souza-v-estate-of-bishop-hid-1984.