Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 1, 1 June 1981 — OHA Takes Major Step to Help Hawaiians With Land Titles [ARTICLE]

OHA Takes Major Step to Help Hawaiians With Land Titles

Confirming their commitment to help Native Hawaiians establish a secure land base, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has awarded a grant to the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation to not only assist Native Hawaiians in defending their land titles but also to help them iegally clear title to their lands by suing persons who are trying to adversely possess them. In the past many native Hawaiians have lost their land, not because they didn't care but because they didn't understand the legal technicalities involved in Quiet Title Actions. To help counter such actions, the Committee on Land and Natural Resources, chaired by Rod K. Burgess, introduced a proposal to the Board of Trustees known as the Native Hawaiian Land Title Project. The Board of Trustees approved the allocation of funds to establish this project. To understand fhe significance of this project, one must understand that a QUIET TITLE ACTION is a lawsuit where

adverse possession and other claims to title are asserted. (See "The Aina" article on adverse possession.)In such a lawsuit, the person who files the lawsuit (known as the "Plaintiff) claims all or a part of the title to a specific pieee of land, and the person who is being sued (known as the "Defendant") may also elaim or have an interest in the real property. The purpose of a quiet title action is to determine who owns what interest in the real property. Sometimes the plaintiff s interest in the land was acquired by buying it from a prevbus owner and sometimes it may have been acquired by buying it from a previous owner and sometimes it may have been acquired by the plaintiff by inheritance when a parent or relative died. However, in almost every quiet title action, adverse possession is asserted as at least one of the sources of the plaintiff s elaim to title. If someone is named as a defendant in a quiet title action, that defendant must prove that he or she has an interest in the

title to the real property or risk having the Court determine that the defendant has no interest in the property. If a defendant who is served with such a lawsuit does nothing to respond to the lawsuit in court, the defendant usually loses his or her interest in the land to the plaintiff who filed the lawsuit, even if the defendant's elaim is strong and the plaintiff's elaim is weak. For a defendant to effectively respond to the lawsuit, the defendant needs a lawyer. For the lawyer to effectively represent the defendant, the defendant needs a title search to help prove the defendant's interest in the land. Unless the defendant acquired his or her interest in the land by a deed from a previous owner, the defendant also needs a genealogical study and witnesses to prove that parents or relatives owned an interest in the land whieh was inherited by the defendant.

The defendant may be able to put together a genealogical chart but lawyers and title searchers cost money. Sadly, many Native Hawaiians do not have the money that is necessary to pay lawyers and title searchers to defend their title. OHA intends to do something about this situation by working with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, a non-profit corporation formed several years ago to address legal problems affecting Native Hawaiians. Anyone who desires this help should prepare now by gathering information required to defend or assert title to land.

The first thing is to prepare a genealogical chart showing all relatives living and dead. The chart should show their relationship to the interested person and to eaeh other; it should include all of the names the relatives have used (for example, maiden and married names) and their dates of birth and death; it should indicate whether relatives are still alive, and if so, where they live. A genealogy should also include a list of all living brothers and sisters, the children of deceased brothers and sisters, grandparents and great grandparents, their brothers and sisters, and their husbands and wives.

A person who wants to prove title must gather all legal papers relating to the pieee of property, and obtain a copy of the wills of deceased relatives who may have had an interest in the property. If the estate of any deceased relative who may have had an interest in the property went through the probate court, the person must get copies of the legal papers filed in the probate court. With all of this information and the title search, the lawyers' work will be easier, and chances of proving and defending title to the land will be greatly increased. Finally, a person should eall or walk in to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for more information. OHA is located at 567 S. King Street in the Kawaihao Plaza, Suite 100, and the phone number is 548-8960.