The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-08-03
SIXTY SUITS PENDING TO
STRAIGHTEN THEM.
Ejectment and Adverse Possession suits
Crowd the Circuit Court Calendar.
Cause of the Pilikia

bad shape, and it will take a long time
to straighten Them out. The calendars
of the Circuit Courts show the bad
conditions existing, and the heavy sums
spent in litigation to mend matters. In
the calendar of the May term of the
First Circuit Court there were no less
than II cases suits for ejectment or to
quiet title, and in the calendar for the
term beginning next Monday there are
so.
All these cases involve disputed land
titles, and i'm many of them the issue is
clear paper title against a claim of
adverse possession. All such conditions
result from the loose methods of trans
ferring property and prObating estates
in the ~ast, and there will be many
heavy losses and gains before the titles
are settled.
The Kapiolani Estate company is the
largest single litigant in such cases. 1t
has lost two suits i'm the Circuit Court,
and has several others pending, to get
possession of real estate of high value.
In each of the cases tried it was shown
that as far as deeds went the company
had clear title, but in the both cases.
against EX- Governor Cleghorn and
the Kaneohe Ranch Company,-the jury
was satisfied that the defendants had
held adverse possession of the property
long enough to establish a clear legal
title. Both cases are going to the Su-
preme Court on many points.
! The legislature of 1898 passed an act
reducing the time for application of the
claim of adverse possession to ten years
! from twenty. The act provided that
/ mo person shall commence an action
/ to recover possession of any lands, or
make any entry thereon, unless within
ten years after the right to bring such
action first accrued"
The immediate result of this law was
! the preparation of land suits that now
crowd the court calendars. The Kapio-
lani Estate began actions right and
left against the occupants of lands it
claimed by title, and others in the same
box followed. The final result will be
a general Strengthening out of land
titles throughout the Islands, putting
them on a legal basis.
The trouble arises" said Attorney
McClanahan, who handled the Kapio-
lani suits just tried, through loose
methods of disposing of land in the
past. Natives would make gifts OF
land by simple word of mouth. One
man would tell another he could have
a piece of land and the man who was
told he could have it would go an6
take it, and that was all there was tC
1t. That is the reason for much of the
confusion that exists
"In the cases of the Kapiolani estate
1t Is simply matter of establishing
titles before it is too late to do so. The
suits were brought because of the new
law passed in 1898. and it is simply the
intention of forestall any possibility OF
losing title by neglect that suits are
being prosecuted"
The land titles are in terrible condi
tion," said Mckinney, searcher OF
/ hn Of n
time in digging up records. 1T is al
owing to the lack of legal system il
transfers of lands and probatng es-
tates in the past. In many cases people
died, especially natives, and there was
no form gone through to fix up titles
to their possessions. Someone else
would come in and take hold, on {
claim that the deceased had left it tC
him, or somethir" of the kind. These
conditions, more or less, existed ever
ten years ago, and there will have tC
be much done before the titles to lanC
throughout the Islands will be in gOoC
shape"
Scores of litigants, white, native anC
Chinese have been watching with in
terest every move made in the Kapio
lani cases that have been tried. Th'
victory i'm each case for the occupan
of the lands in question was based upoT
the simple issue of facts, as to whethe
the occupants had held actual posses
sion, hostile to the plaintiffs, for Ions
enough to establish legal title. In thes
cases twenty years was the perioC
necessary, as the suits were brough
just in time before the new law, max
ing the period ten years, went int
effect.
The following are the cases yet to b.
heard, the list of counsel including
about every attorney in Honolulu:
S. Ahmi VS. Annie Waller - dl.
j. z. Mendonca VS. George Markham
Mahoahoa VS. Tai Bun.
Sister Albertina Trustee, VS.. hapio
lani Estate. Ltd.
Sister Albertina, Trustee, VS.. Kapio
lani Estate, Ltd, ct al.
G. G. Akina VS.. Malta Kuahau ct a
John Ii Estate, Ltd, VS.: r. Kahin
Mele
Becky Laillula x. Kalamakee a mino
by Maria Kalamakee, her guardian a
litem VS.. Henry Wharton ct al.
Leong Duck VS.. Kalanihuia ct al.
Lee Tit VS.. Chow Yee ct al.
(Tnpfinnpd IN papa five