State of Hawaii, by Its Attorney General, on Behalf of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Hawaiian Homes Commission v. United States

866 F.2d 313, 1989 U.S. App. LEXIS 660, 1989 WL 4929

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Decided: January 27, 1989
• Docket: 88-1651
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

We affirm on the basis of Chief Judge Fong’s excellent opinion, reported at 676 F.Supp. 1024 (D.Hawaii 1988), which we adopt as our own.

We need only address an issue raised principally by amici curiae, Native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Home Lands trust: whether the common law of Hawaii required that the United States give actual notice of its claim to the land in question. We hold that the law of Hawaii has no bearing on the type of notice required by the Quiet Title Act. Whether or not the United States is a trustee for the benefit of native Hawaiians with respect to the land, and whether or not Hawaii trust law requires a trustee to provide actual notice to a beneficiary, the Quiet Title Act explicitly provides that constructive notice is sufficient to trigger the twelve-year statute of limitations. 28 U.S.C. § 2409a(k) (Supp. IV 1986). The common law of Hawaii cannot supersede the clear command of a federal statute.