The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-08
FINDINGS OF FACT
FOR HIGHER COURT
What Our Supreme Court Says
in the Liliha Street
Case.

The Supreme Court yesterday morn
! ing filed its findings of fact in the Lii
liha street property owners injunction
against the Rapid Transit Company
These findings of fact are for the SUI
ipreme Court of the United States or
the appeal taken by the Rapid Transit
Company from the decision of the court
here entoining it from changing the
Liliha street schedule.
In making its findings the court says
that If the question We're an open one
lit would hold that no findings of this
kind would be necessary on appeal, AS
in its opinion the Organic Act controls
in the matter of such appeals. But as
the Supreme Court of the United States
in the Bierce case has given a con-
trary intimation, it makes findings of
fact. These are eight in number. In
the first three the court find as a fact:
| The legal existence of the defendant as
a corporation; that the company oper-
ates a single track system in Honolulu
and among other lines is the Liliha-
Waialae line; the part on Liliha street
! a
and has been operated continuously
ever since on a ten-minute schedule;
and that in 1904 the service was ex-
tended to Waialae on thirty-m mir ute
schedule from Pawaa junction.
| The others in order are:
90 Since the latter part of 1905 a
car has been run every tewnty minutes
during the dag from the junction of
wyllie and Liliha streets to the Wal
alae terminus the line passing through
the business section of Honolulu, the
center of which is Fort street, while
the alternate cars constituting the ten
minute service on Liliha street. stopped
| at River street. Connections were made
with the ten-minute service on the
King street line at the foot of Liliha
street and the bulk of the travel trans
| ferred at this point to and from the
King street line which is the longest
and most important line of the COM
pany.
(5). The population of Honolulu is
about 10000.
co The map of Honolulu shown in
evidence showing the street car system
may be referred To as a Iart O. these
| findings.
Cd The company proposed to change
the service so as to give, with the same
number of cars, a fifteen minute. SER
vice throughout the Liliha- Waialae
line and procured permission from the
Superintendent of Public Works to
change it's switches so as to give this
service. Objection was made by some
of it's patrons. After conferences with
committee which urged ten-minute
service throughout the line the COM
pany agreed to a compromise service
which should give a twenty-minute.
service during the entire day and a
ten-minute service from 5:45 to a. M,
and from 4 to p. m. The company
applied to the superintendent of Pub
lie Works for permission to change it's
switches so as to give this service.
This suit was brought by the Attorney
General at the request of dissatisfied
residents of the district served by the
Liliha street line.
(S) The evidence showed that public
convenience required the continuance
of a ten-minute service on Liliha
street. The court is of the opinion that
the eighth finding is a finding of fact,
but upon the appellants contention
that it is a mixed question of law and
fact, and its insistence that its rights
in the Supreme Court of the United
States would be prejudiced should the
Supreme Court take its view of the
matter, and there should be in the rec
ord no findings of fact upon which
said eighth finding was based, the
court makes the following findings of
the principal evidential facts leading
TO its eighth finding.
(Sa) A ten-minute service on LiIiha i
street has been continuously maintain
ed since the beginning of the opera
ton of the street railway system by
the company in Honolulu, to wit, since
about September 1901.
(Sb) During that period there has
been a steady increase in the popula>
ton in the district served by the Lili-
ha street line
(sc) Property in the section served /
by the Liliha street line has been pur- i
chased and houses built in reliance up /
on ten-minute service.
(Sd) There is definite prospect of
further increase in the population serv-
ed by the Liliha street line owing to a
recent sale of homestead lots at Alewa
by the government.
(Se) There was testimony of individ-
ual patrons tending to show that pub .
lie Inconvenience would result from the /
proposed change.
ESP The entire system of the COM
pany is operated at profit.
(Sg) The evidence did not show either /
that the LiIiha street line or the Liiiha !
Street WaiaIae line was operated at a
loss.
(sh) The remainder of the defendant
system except the two outlying dis
tricts of Manoa and Waialae is oper-
ated upon a ten-ninute service.
The case now goes to the Supreme
Court of the United States upon these
findings of fact for it to determine
whether under the law the proceeding
by the Attorney General was authoriz-
ed, and whether if it We're, the law
and the facts justify the perpetual in