The Hawaiian gazette., 1902-09-02
lit Tie IS
REVERSED
Supreme Court Gets
Aside Ruling in
Two Cases.

! Judge Little was reversed yesterday
In a decision handed down by tn,
/ Supreme Court In the two cases Of c
\. Brown VS.. ]. ID. Spreckels Bros. e
al The suit was for possession OF
beach property at Hilo which wa
| claimed under a grant from Kameha
meha III.
/ The Supreme Court decision was writ
| ten by Chief Justice Frear before his
departure, l.. \. Dickey sitting in the
case in place of Justice Galbraith who
was disqualified because of his former
association with Little. The syllabus
says:
Parol evidence is inadmissible to vary
or contradict the terms of deed, as, for
instance. to show that the survey notes
made one distance longer than that de-
scribcd in the deed.
Evidence is inadmissibe 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
M anings-
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 We're now different,
titles to beach property previously ac-
CURED would remain valid.
Crown lands were alienable by the King
in 1853.
Accretion belongs to the littoral proprie-
tor.
A description in n deed, first by monu-
ments, one boundary being represented
as adjoining or coincding with the edge
or the shore of the sea: then by courses
and distances, which apparently do not
go quite to high water mark, and finally
by a diagram representing the space be-
tween the land as described by courses
and distances and the beach"
carries title to high water mark at least
The words with the right of extension
to low water mark" added to a specific
Dc scription 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 n 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
may be shown by the context, or by
proof that it had different meaning in
the particular trade or locality, or, in
case of 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 a popular
sense as including more or less land. ac-
cording to the circumstances, above high
water mark.
When n deed described certain land by
courses and distances and then added,
And also the 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
nonsut on the ground that the word
beach had n fixed legal meaning cover
ing the space between high and low water
marks alone.