Title: Maui Land & Pine. v. Heirs of Makeelani
Citation: 751 P.2d 1020
Docket Number: 12018, 12349
State: Hawaii
Issuer: Hawaii Supreme Court
Date: March 21, 1988

751 P.2d 1020 (1988) MAUI LAND &amp; PINEAPPLE COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. NAIAPAAKAI HEIRS OF John Keola MAKEELANI, Defendants-Appellants, and Ioba Malo, et al., Defendants-Appellees. Nos. 12018, 12349. Supreme Court of Hawaii. March 21, 1988. Sherry P. Broder (Karen A. Essene with her on the reply brief), Honolulu, for defendants-appellants. Francis P. Hogan (Michael W. Gibson, Ashford &amp; Wriston), Honolulu, for defendants-appellees. Before LUM, C.J., and NAKAMURA, PADGETT, HAYASHI and WAKATSUKI, JJ. PADGETT, Justice. The appeal in No. 12018 is from an order entered on stipulated facts of January 20, 1987. The court, on the basis of the stipulated facts, concluded that Grace Young, Charles Kamauoha and Hookano Kamauoha did not inherit an interest in the property which is the subject of the lawsuit. It consequently entered an order granting a motion for determination of heirs and denying an evidentiary trial on the subject. The order, which also set forth the stipulated facts, was prepared by appellants' counsel and agreed to by appellees' counsel. Subsequently, appellants moved for reconsideration or for an HRCP 54(b) certification. Reconsideration was denied but the certification was granted and this appeal followed. The appeal in No. 12349 is from the denial of the subsequent motion for relief from the order previously appealed from under HRCP 60(b). The stipulated facts were: Appellants attached to their moving papers on the motion to continue hearing and for an evidentiary trial, and to their 60(b) motion, uncertified portions of a deed in Hawaiian which is the basis of their claim of title. Their moving papers contain a translation which indicates that the deed was from D.K. Naiapaakai and Louisa Kamahana Naiapaakai to S. Kanekapolei, acknowledged May 21, 1875 and recorded in the Bureau of Conveyances on June 5, 1875. Since the grantee died without surviving issue, the crucial question in the case turned on the phrase in the deed "ike kekahi o lakou ka hooilina aole kekahi mea e ae." The stipulation of facts correctly translates those words as "or someone of their heirs not someone else." The grantee died in 1933. Appellants Grace Young and Charles Kamauoha survived her. They were the children of Hookano Kamauoha and Akiona who had been hanaied by John Keola when he married their mother subsequent to their birth. John Keola was a child of Kamaiohao, a sister of the grantee. He was born in 1875 and died in 1913. Appellants contend that as "keiki hanai" of John Keola they are "hooilina". Essentially appellants' claim is that they were, by Hawaiian custom, adopted children and therefore heirs. However, as the exhaustive review of the history of the law of adoption in this jurisdiction as set out in O'Brien v. Walker, 35 Haw. 104 (1939), indicates, while adoption by custom was recognized in early times, beginning in 1841 and continuing until the present time (and thus in effect during the period when appellants were hanaied by John Keola), there were written statutes of adoption which had to be followed in order to constitute the adoptee's legal heirs of the adoptors. Even prior to the enactment of any statutes on the subject of adoption, the mere fact that one was a "keiki hanai" did *1022 not, by Hawaiian custom, carry with it a right of inheritance. In Mellish v. Bal, 3 Haw. 123 (1869), the court stated: Id. at 126-27 (emphasis in original). Indeed the law of Hawaii with respect to the question of whether keiki hanais are heirs is so well settled that it is somewhat surprising to have the issue again brought before us. Appellants also urge that we engraft a doctrine of equitable adoption on the law of Hawaii. We explicitly refuse to do so. As pointed out above, we have a well developed law of adoption in this State and to depart from the statutes by creating a doctrine of equitable adoption would import mischief and uncertainty into the law. Affirmed.