Here is the recording of last month’s Hawaii Supreme Court oral arguments in Bridge Aina Lea Dev., LLC v. Bridge Aina Lea, No. CAAP-13-0000091.
This is the state court half of the case. The federal court half is pending in the Ninth Circuit, which, after oral arguments earlier in June, decided to hold off on deciding the appeal until after the Hawaii Supreme Court issued its decision in this case.
Both cases started off in state court in the Third Circuit (Big Island), one an original jurisdiction civil rights lawsuit, the other an administrative appeal from a decision of the State Land Use Commission. The essence of the plaintiff’s allegations is that the LUC wrongfully amended the land use boundaries from urban to agriculture. Many years earlier, the LUC had amended the boundary to urban on the condition that the owner provide a certain number of affordable units by 2006. In 2008, the developer had not done so and the LUC ordered it to show cause why the land classification should not revert to its original agricultural designation. The State removed the civil rights lawsuit to U.S. District Court in Honolulu and promptly moved to dismiss, and that is the matter now before the Ninth Circuit.
In the administrative appeal, the state court smacked the LUC pretty hard, and issued issued an order vacating the LUC’s reclassification. The court concluded the LUC exceeded its statutory authority, and violated the developers’ due process, fifth amendment, and equal protection rights. That’s the ruling which was being argued in the recording, after the appeal was transferred to the Supreme Court from the Intermediate Court of Appeals.
We posted the briefs in the case here along with the Judiciary’s preview of the issues.
Having now listened to the recording, we don’t think any side sufferered fatal blows, and as a result, we can’t predict an outcome. But it was a hot bench,