Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 9, 1 September 1985 — Court Upholds OHA Suit Against State to Reclaim Ceded Land Income [ARTICLE]

Court Upholds OHA Suit Against State to Reclaim Ceded Land Income

Circuit Court Judge Edwin Honda on Aug. 9 threw out a motion by the State of Hawaii to declare the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' ceded land suit illegal. His action followed nearly one and one-half years of deliberations. OHA filed that suit in March, 1984, in order to eompel the State to turn over ceded land revenues as required by law. Ceded lands are those former crown and government lands seized without payment by the federal government when Hawaii was annexed in 1898. Following the 1978 Constitutional Convention, Hawaii's Legislature ordered the State to turn over 20 percent of all

ceded land ineome to OHA for use in native Hawaiian programs. However, the State refused to comply fully with the law and has withheld ceded land revenue generated by airports and harbors. After OHA filed suit to force eomplianee with the law, the State asked Judge Honda to dismiss OHA's suit, claiming that the State cannot be sued without its permission. It was that motion whieh Judge Honda threw out of court on Aug. 9. At a news conference that day attended by OHA attorney Boyce Brown and several Trustees,

Resource Development Committee Chairman Louis Hao said Judge Honda "in effect has told OHA that it has the legal right to go to court and demand that the State comply with the law as it affects OHA's revenues. Brown said Honda "recognized that the State can't hide behind the shield of sovereignty and that it has obligations to the people of the State and to Oahu." Brown said he and eo-eouneil David Schutter now ean get started on the trial itself . . . a trial whieh, he said, involves tens of millions of dollars. According to Brown, the trial should be underway by March of next year.