You can read the court’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order here.

I won’t be commenting on this decision since my colleagues Ken Kupchak, Mark Murakami and I are the attorneys for the property owner, but the statement of the family that owns the land is below.

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Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra has decided in favor of a local Kona family, ruling that the County of Hawaii illegally sold its power of eminent domain to Scottsdale, Arizona-based luxury developer Hokulia.  In the County-Hokulia Development Agreement, the County allowed Hokulia to control what property would be seized, permitted Hokulia’s lawyers to threaten the Richards Family and its neighbors, and forced the County to bring lawsuits against its own citizens to take their property. 

The court ruled that the County-Hokulia Development Agreement violated state law because it illegally transferred the County’s power to take the property by eminent domain to Hokulia.  The Richards Family’s property was targeted by the developer for its “Hokulia Bypass,” a road connecting the “luxury golf course real estate development project” to Mamalahoa Highway. 
 
The court struck down the first of the County’s multiple attempts to take a portion of the Richards Family’s property for the Bypass because the County “did not have a proper public purpose.”  The court found “[i]f the government attempts to delegate its power of eminent domain to a private party in an agreement whereby the developer controls what property is taken and pays for all expenses, and the private party is able to demand the government institute eminent domain proceedings against other private property owners, then the attempted delegation is illegal and void.” 
 
The court also invalided the portion of the County-Hokulia agreement that would have required the Richards Family and their Onouli neighbors to reimburse Hokulia for the cost of the road. 
 
Under the judge’s ruling, however, the County will be able to build the Bypass since a second attempt to take the property did not suffer the same legal defects as the first.  The court awarded the Richards Family over $200,000 in compensation for the taking of their land.
 
“These cases were never about whether another road is needed in Kona,” said Richards Family spokesman Charles Coupe.  “Our family fought for our rights and the rights of our neighbors because we couldn’t believe that the County could sell governmental powers to the highest bidder.  It didn’t seem right that the County could agree to allow Hokulia to take our property for Hokulia’s road, and then pass back the cost of the road to us.” 
 
After Hokulia directed the County to start eminent domain process in October 2000, the Richards Family called upon Kenneth Kupchak, Robert Thomas, and Mark Murakami, the legal team at Honolulu-based Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert (www.hawaiilawyer.com), to protect their rights in court. 
 
“It has been a long fight, but it has been worth it,” said Coupe, “Our family knew this wasn’t right, and we would stand up for our rights and our neighbors’ rights again, if necessary.”
 

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