The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-30

Judge Little was reversed yesterday
in a decision handed down by the
Supreme Court in the two cases of G
A. Brown VS.. J. D. Spreckels Bros e'
al. The suit was for possession OF
beach property at Hilo which was
claimed under a grant from Kameha-
meha III.
The Supreme Court decision was VIII
ten by Chief Justice Frear before his
departure, L. a. Dickey sitting N the
case in place of Justice Galbratth VINO
was disqualified because of his former
association with Little The syllabus
says:
Parol evidence is inadmissible to vary
or contradict the terms of a deed, as, Tor
instaa6 TO show that the sdrVey notes
made ..e distance longer than that de-
scribed in the deed.
Evidence is inadmissible to show the
usual meaning of ordinary words, as, for
instance, the broader popular or the mar
rover legal meaning of the word beach'
The Courts take judicial notice OF such
meanings
The beach between high and low water
marks could be granted to private per
sons before the annexation OF these ISL
ands to the United States.
Even if the law were now different
titles to beach property pr eviousiy ac-
quired would remain valid.
Crown lands were alienable by the King
in 1853.
Accretion belongs to the littcral proprie-
tor.
A description in deed, first by monu-
ments one boundary being represented
as adjoining or coinciding with the edge
of
and distances, which apparently do not
go quite to high water mark, and finally
by a diagram representing the space De-
tween the land as described by courses
and distances and the sea as beach
carries title to high water mark at least.
The words with the right of extension
TO low water mark added to a Speclnc
description of certain land near the sea,
carry the fee to the land in front OF the
specifically described land, so far as the
grantor has the fee.
AS a rule land cannot be appurtenant
to land.
In constituting a deed, the court will,
in order to give effect to the intention of
the parties, conStrue word in popular
or technical or purely arbitrary sense
provided the intended sense can be ascer-
tanned in a legal manner Ordinarily the
ordinary meaning will be given to word
but that it was used in some other sense
may be shown by the context, or by
proof that it had a different meaning in
the particular trade or locality, or, IN
case of a latent ambiguity, by parol evil
dence of the special circumstances of the
case.
The word beach may be used in a
legal sense as meaning the space between
high and low water marks or in popular
sense as including more or less land, &C
cording to the circumstances, above high
water mark.
When a deed described certain land by
courses and distances and then added,
land also the sea beach in front OF the
same down to low water mark, and the
particularly described land extended
nearly to high water mark and the land
between was of little value and was used
in connection with the rest and no rea-
son appeared for not including it or for
granting the beach between high and low
water marks alone, and possession of the
strip between was taken by the grantee
without question, it was error to direct
a nonsuit on the ground that the word
beach had fixed legal meaning cover
ing the space between high and low water
marks alone.