The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-24
WILL ARGUE
THE APPEAL.
Pearl Harbor Case
In Higher
Court,
LITIGATION MAY
END VERY SOON
Unless Judge Estee is Sustained, a
Third Trial of Suit Will
Be Required.

Assistant United States Attorney
Dunno and R. D. Silliman leave on the
Alameda today for San Francisco to,
present the appeal to the Circuit Court
of Appeals in the Honolulu Plantation
Co. case.
The Court of Appeals does not con-
vene in San Francisco until October
9Th but there are many preliminary
matters which must be cleared up be-
fore the appeal can be submitted The
record was sent up only week ago
and must first be printed and put in
proper shape for presentation.
The appeal is taken by the United
States alone, the defendant, The Homo
lulu Plantation Co.. though giving no
tice of appeal having failed to per-
feet it.
If Judge Estee is reversed it will
mean that the Honolulu case must be
tried for third time. The question,
more than anything else upon which
the suit is to be argue,i will be the right
of the respondents to a trial by jury.
Judge Estee in the first case allowed
a jury trial over ths, protests of the
then Acting United States Attorney,
Dunno, who claimed that the court
should fix the amount of compensation.
Upon the second trial the right to trial
by jury was not brought into ques-
ton, and when Mr.. Dunno filed his bill
of exceptions the paragraph referring
to Judge Estee's allowance of jury
was not allowed by the court.
Another question which will probably
be submitted is as to the right of the
Circuit Court of Appeals to assess the
amount of damages in the event that
the verdict of the United States court
in Honolulu is set aside. The evidence
taken here will of course be before the
San Francisco court and there would be
no difficulty in fixing the amount on
that account.
The decision of the Court of Appeals,
if sustaining Judge Estee will put an
end to the Pearl Harbor litigation All
the other cases have been settled and
it was expected that the compromise eff
fected by Admiral Merry here would
be accepted by The Navy Department.
The refusal of course necessitated the
perfecting of the appeal. In the first
trial of the case the Honolulu Plan
tation Co. was awarded the sum of
$685. by a jury for its leasehold in
terest in the Bishop Estate Pearl Har-
Dor lands. This verdict was set aside
by Judge Estee upon the refusal of the
defendant to accept a reduction of the
amount to $4,000 and a second trial was
ordered. Another long and tedious trial
brought verdict for. nearly the same
amount as given upon the first hearing
and Judge Estee denied the second mo-
ton for a new trial. A third trial must
be held in case the Court of Appeals
orders it, in which event there viii be
extreme difficulty in securing an un-
biased jury. The first two juries used
up about all the available jury mate
rial in Honolulu, nearly all the men
examined being in some way or other
connected with sugar plantations. In
the event that third hearing is nee
essary there is some talk of the trial
being held somewhere else than in Ho-
nolulu, unless Judge Estee hears it by
himself.
The attorneys interested in the Pearl
Harbor case expect to return within a
month, as the matter will be submitted
as soon as possible after court convenes
in Ontnhnr