The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-11
STORY Of THE
LOST kULEANAS
judiciaIIy Told by Judge
Weaver in His
Decision.

Judge Weaver of the Court of Land
Registration has filed very inter
esting decision on the petition Of w
R. Castle, trustee for I. H. Lansing
for title to land in Koolau. The ease
has attracted considerable attention
because of dispute as to whether two
kuleanas awarded by the Land Com
mission were within this land, as claim
ell by their owner, or were somewhere
else altogether. They have been
spoken of as the lost kuleanas.
On the whole petition Judge Weaver
decides that the petitioner has a good
title to the land he claims except as
to these two kuleanas, and as to the
correction of line claimed by Syl-
vester Cullen, and as to a small piece
of beach accretion claimed by the
government. The government, it is
held has an easement but not the fee
simple of the land occupied by the
roads.
The part of the decision relating to
the lost kuleanas is, in its essential
findings of fact, as follows:
The claim by Margaret Cullen to two
kuleanas located by her within the
limits of the land described.
The testimony shows and I find that
at the time of the awards and prior
thereto, about 1852 the awardees oc-
cupied the land now occupied and
claimed by Margaret Cullen, claiming
the land under and by virtue of the
awards aforesaid and Royal Patents
afterwards issued thereon.
The owners died about the time of
the small pox epidemic and no further
use was made of the land for years
except that a school house was built
either on or near the land and remov-
ed long before Margaret Cullen ac-
quired title in 1897 and went into pos
session. Margaret Cullen bought the
land from Kaupe and the location of
the Wahahee claims was pointed out
to her by kamaainas since deceased,
and by Kaupe the seller.
AS to the Keawe kuleana Sylvester
Cullen bought it in 1872, and had the
same located by kamaainas on the land
at that time. He also later had a.
surveyor locate the lot and ploWed a.
furrow around it to mark it.
And the land around this was gov
eminent land up to the time when
Phillips and Co. acquired the land
from the government by grant 1899.
Therefore, the occupiers of the kule-
anas could not claim to own the land
by adverse possession for the grant
was not made till 1896.
Cullen did not use the land except
for occasional cultivation up TO time
when the grant was made, and he sold
the land to his daughter.
The land was lying idle for many
years except for a little cultivation by
Cullen, and possibly the occupation of
a part of the Wahahee kuleana by a
school house, but the location Of the
school house is too indefinite to base
any definite claim upon. The land
was open and covered with the usual
wild vegetation of the region when the
grant was made. There was a horse
back trail running over both kuleanas
from the earliest times and of late
years it has been widened to a road
by the Territory correctly show the
location of the fences at this time and
for more than five years prior to this
time.
The defendant is and has been in
possession of the premises claimed by
her for about ten years with the ex-
ception of a short time in 1908 when
she was ousted by petitioners grantor.
after a survey of the land according
to the ancient description, and a Local
ton with the testimony of kamaainas.
The petitioner claims that the two
lots are not in the boundaries of the
land described by them but offer no
theory or explanation further. No evil
dence that the lands are elsewhere
located is offered except that giving
the name Waianu to the land where
the kuleanas are located by defendant,
and pointing to the names Uwau and
Kaaniu as the names of the land where
the lots are to be located.
The location claimed by Margaret
Cullen is the one sustained by the tes-
timony, and [ therefore find that the
two kuleanas of Wahahee and Keawe,
L. c. A. No. 1923, apana 1, and No.
1866, apana 2, are located as claimed
by defendant Margaret Cullen upon
the ground within the limits of the
and claimed by petitioner and have
1 corner at a post near a stone at the
corner of grant 50 as located by w. A. |
Wall and shown in Margaret CulIen's |
Exhibit F. AS near as can be deter |
mined at this late day, fifty-five years
after the award, this was the location |
If the kuleana as occupied by the |
lwardees.