The Hawaii Supreme Court has issued a lengthy opinion in a case we’ve been following, DW Aina Lea Development, LLC v. Bridge Aina Lea, LLC, No. SCAP-13-0000091 (Nov. 25, 2014).
The litigation is a series of two lawsuits that originated in state court in the Third Circuit (Big Island), one an original jurisdiction civil rights…
To all who were able to join today’s ABA Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate’s Condemnation, Zoning and Land Use Committee’s call on the AIG takings trial, currently pending in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, thank you for participating. I’ve posted the entire talk (minus questions) above.
Here are the links to the…
Earlier, we posted the recording of the Ninth Circuit’s recent oral arguments in Bridge Aina Lea, LLC v. Chock, Nos. 12-15971, 12-16076, a case in which the court is considering whether State of Hawaii Land Use Commissioners have immunity from civil rights lawsuits, among other issues. The essence of the plaintiff’s allegations is that…
Here are the merits briefs in an important case set for argument later this month in the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The litigation is a series of two lawsuits that originated in state court in the Third Circuit (Big Island), one an original jurisdiction civil rights lawsuit, the other an administrative appeal. The essence of the…
It’s been our experience that when a court of appeals — particularly when it’s the Ninth Circuit, and it’s the eve of oral argument — raises an issue on its own after the briefs have been filed and requests supplemental briefing, then whatever that issue is must really be on the judges’ minds. They’re the cream…
One portion of the federal Uniform Relocation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4651, requires Federal agencies participating in projects requiring the acquisition of private property to be guided by certain policies that “assure consistent treatment for owners . . . and . . . .promote public confidence in Federal land acquisition practices,” such as (and we’re paraphrasing…
Our Latin cousins warned us long ago homo sapiens non urinat in ventum (“a wise man does not pee into the wind”) but such wisdom doesn’t prevent us from trying at times to buck the conventional thinking. Because sometimes, you don’t know which way the wind is blowing until you go outside and actually feel…
At the Hawaii Agriculture Law Conference which we just wrapped last week, perhaps the hottest topic on the agenda was the anti-GMO ordinances recently adopted by the Counties of Hawaii (Big Island) and Kauai.
Barista’s note: One advantage of having POTUS in town for a couple of weeks was that it resulted in a…
Here’s the Brief Opposing Motion to Affirm, filed today (Dec. 26, 2013) in Kostick v. Nago, No. 13-456.
That’s the appeal currently pending in the Supreme Court challenging a ruling by a three-judge U.S. District Court upholding the 2012 Hawaii Reapportionment Plan against an Equal Protection challenge. The Plaintiffs assert that the 2012 …
Here’s the State of Hawaii’s Motion to Affirm, filed earlier today. This brief responds to the Jurisdictional Statement, filed two months ago in the case now pending in the U.S. Supreme Court which challenges the 2012 Hawaii Reapportionment Plan. The State has hired some very big gun Supreme Court litigators (at who knows…
