Opinion ID: 1186420
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the state failed to carry its burden of proof to establish its title to the land

Text: The majority, in adopting the State's first contention, finds as a basic proposition of Hawaiian land law that land in its original state [3] is public land and if not awarded or granted remains in the public domain. Their support for this proposition is drawn from decisions of the Hawaii Supreme Court between 1875 and 1912 dealing with ownership of lands to which a Mahele agreement had been where the claimant had failed to perfect this title before the Land Commission. This court held that the failure to present claims to the Land Commission before the termination of the statutory limitations period (which originally was to end February 14, 1848 but was extended by statute) [4] rendered such claims invalid. Thurston v. Bishop, 7 Haw. 421 (1888); Kenoa v. Meek, 6 Haw. 63 (1871); Dowsett v. Maukeala et al., 10 Haw. 166 (1895); Kaai v. Mahuka, 5 Haw. 354 (1885); In Re Title to Pa Pelekane, 21 Haw. 175 (1912); Kahoomana v. Minister of Interior, 3 Haw. 635 (1875). At the heart of these decisions was this court's interpretation of Section 8 of the Act of 1845 [5] which provided: All claims to land, as against the Hawaiian Government, which are not presented to said Board (Land Commission) within the time, at the place and in the manner prescribed in the notice required to be given by the fifth section of this article, shall be deemed invalid, and shall be forever barred in law unless the claimant be absent from the Kingdom and have no representative therein. The court decided that this bar was absolute unless the claimant fit within the statutory exceptions. The question then arose as to whether these unassigned lands were Crown Lands or Government Lands. In deciding that the Government had title to unassigned lands, the court examined and reexamined the events surrounding the Great Mahele. See Kenoa v. Meek, 6 Haw. 63, 64-66; Kahoomana v. Minister of Interior, 3 Haw. 635, 638-639; Thurston v. Bishop, 7 Haw. 421, 428-434. Of particular import was the declaration of Kamehameha III on March 8, 1848 by which he ceded a large measure of the land of his Kingdom to the Hawaiian Government. This instrument, written in Hawaiian but translated into English by this court in In Re Estate of His Majesty Kamehameha IV, 2 Haw. 715 (1864) states: Know all men by these presents, that I, Kamehameha III, by the Grace of God, King of these Hawaiian Islands, have given this day of my own free will and have made over and set apart forever to the chiefs and people the larger part of my royal land, for the use and benefit of the Hawaiian Government, therefore by this instrument I hereby retain (or reserve) for myself and for my heirs and successors forever, my lands inscribed at pages ... these lands are set apart for myself and for my heirs and successors forever, as my own property exclusively. This proclamation evidenced the King's intent that all lands not specifically reserved for the crown or claimed by the Konohiki or others through the Land Commission process be set apart for the use of the Government. This intent also found expression in the Principles Adopted by the Board of Commission to Quiet Land Titles (RLH 1925, vol. II, pp. 2120-2152). These Principles, enacted by the Legislative Council on Oct. 26, 1846, were intended to guide the Land Commission in its adjudication of land claims. The Principles close with this statement: The titles of all lands, whether rightfully or wrongfully claimed, either by natives or foreigners, in the entire Kingdom, which shall not have been presented to this Board for adjudication, confirmation, or rejection, on or before the 14th day of February, 1848, are declared to belong to the Government by section 8 of the article creating this Board. Parties who thus neglect to present their claims, do so in defiance of the law, and cannot complain of the effect of their disobedience (emphasis added). Principles, in Statutes of 1846, Vol. 2, p. 93; Kahoomana v. Minister of Interior, 3 Haw. at 639 (1875) and Thurston v. Bishop, 7 Haw. at 432 (1888). In its consideration of the above cited cases, the court was engaged in narrow statutory analysis [6] and not in announcement of a fundamental proposition of Hawaiian land law. Nor did the statutes being interpreted announce any principle of law which would have application to lands created after their enactment. The Government's title to unassigned lands which were the subject of the cases cited above is derived directly from a Grant from the King. The Government received all the land not reserved by the King or successfully claimed by other individuals before the Land Commission. There is a fundamental difference between the proposition that the scope of the grant to the Government from its predecessor in title, the King, included all lands not reserved or claimed, and the proposition announced by the majority that the Government owns all lands, whenever created, to which there is no Land Commission Award, Royal Patent, Kamehameha Deed or other Government grant. The former proposition is supported by precedent and logic, whereas the latter is without precedent, as no Hawaiian case or statute, past or present, has been cited or discovered which even mentioned lands to be created in the future. It is a logical assumption that the engineers of the Great Mahele, aware of the fact of volcanic eruptions, were confident that any additions to the islands created thereby would be dealt with in a manner consistent with existing custom and usage and the principles of the recently embraced common law. Certainly it is beyond dispute that persons who did receive either a Royal Patent, a Kamehameha Deed, a Land Commission, or other such Grant received a fee simple interest in the lands therein described. [7] With fee simple ownership the grantee or successful claimant became entitled to all the incidents and privileges which attach to that status by operation of the common law or Hawaiian custom and usage. In the instant case the appellees contend that one incident of ownership, derived both from custom and common law, is the right to take title to accessions to property including those caused by lava. I believe there is merit in these contentions. B. The majority decides that the subject land did not become part of appellees' land through operation of common law principles. However, it is my belief that two separate and distinct common law principles, (1) the law of accretion, and (2) the principles developed to guide the construction of conveyances, are relevant to the instant case and favor the appellees' position. 1. Accretion. The common law of accretion and avulsion does not necessarily directly control the case now before us, yet this does not mean that it is without import. If this is a decision which will count for the future, it should be undertaken with careful consideration of the past, both the policies from which the common law doctrines governing ownership of additions to land were derived and developed, and unique Hawaiian usage. These common law policies and Hawaiian usage coalesce to give the abutting landowner ownership of lava extensions to his land. The Supreme Court of the United States has many times been called upon to resolve disputes involving title to newly created lands. As stated by Justice Black in Hughes v. Washington, 389 U.S. 290, 293, 88 S.Ct. 438, 440, 19 L.Ed.2d 530 (1967): A long and unbroken line of decisions of this Court establishes that the grantee of land bounded by a body of navigable waters acquires a right to any natural and gradual accretion formed along the shore. The instant case is, of course, distinguishable from true accretion cases in that the additional land here was not formed by the gradual deposit of soil due to the action of a bounding river, stream, lake, pond, or tidal waters. Powell on Real Property, Vol. 7 § 983 (1976). Instead, it was formed by one of the most violent and spectacular geophysical processes known: a volcanic eruption and ensuing lava flow. I do not dispute the validity of this distinction. However, both true accretion and lava extensions share certain characteristics: both are formed by natural processes which extend fast land into a body of water, both could adversely affect the riparian or littoral quality of the abutting landowner's interest, and neither contemplates the taking of property from one person or entity and giving it to another. When the policies which underlie the doctrine of accretion are examined, they seem equally compelling where the subject land is created by volcanic action as by imperceptible accumulation. The predominant policy concern in accretion cases has been protection of the private owner's littoral or riparian status. As stated in Hughes v. Washington, supra, 389 U.S. at 293, 88 S.Ct. at 440: Any other rule would leave riparian owners continually in danger of losing the access to water which is often the most valuable feature of their property... . This policy would seem to apply with undiminished force in cases involving lava extensions attaching to oceanfront property in Hawaii. The majority does not find this analogy compelling but after considering the policies which underlie the common law doctrine of accretion, rejects them, not, I believe, because they are not pertinent and reasonable but because they must be rejected in order to accomplish a result which the majority considers worthy. 2. Construction of Conveyances. There is a common law rule that, in construing a written document which describes a parcel of land, to the extent that there is a conflict in the description of the parcel, natural monuments will control over distances and azimuths. This principle has been adopted by the Hawaii Supreme Court and applied to the construction of land court decrees. McCandless v. Du Roi, 23 Haw. 51 (1915) and In Re Application of Sanborn, 57 Haw. ___, 562 P.2d 771 (March 23, 1977). In Sanborn the court held that even where a private landowner held a land court decree which purported to describe the makai boundary of his property as along the high water mark followed by a description in azimuths and distances of the high water line, this description was in error and the true makai boundary was the vegetation line as set out in County of Hawaii v. Sotomura, 55 Haw. 167, 677, 517 P.2d 57 (1973). The fact that HRS 501-71 provides that every land court decree shall bind the land, and quiet title thereto ... and that such decree shall be conclusive upon and against all persons, including the State ... was considered insignificant because the public trust doctrine, under which all land makai of the vegetation line is held by the State in trust for the public, can be deemed to create an exception to our land court statute... . 57 Haw. ___, 562 P.2d 776. However, the court chose not to rely solely on this application of the public trust doctrine and went on to expound the common law rule of construction set out above. Under this rule, the court reasoned, the natural monument, the high water mark, would control over the distances and azimuths with which the land court sought to describe this line. The true measure of high water mark in this jurisdiction is the upper reach of the wash of the waves, Sanborn, 57 Haw. at ___, 562 P.2d at 777 (1977), which is the vegetation line, Sotomura, 55 Haw. at 182, 517 P.2d 57. In the instant case the appellees argued before the trial court that this principle of construction should be applied to their case. They pointed out that their deed recited the high water mark as their makai boundary and that this natural monument (the location of the shoreline) should control over the azimuths and distances by which their deed described the makai boundary. The majority now decides that the makai boundary of the Zimrings' land is to be the line set out in azimuths and distances despite the fact that this is inconsistent with the location of the natural monuments used as reference points. This decision seems at odds with Sanborn and especially with McCandless v. Du Roi, 23 Haw. 51 (1915), a case which the Sanborn court cited as a correct application of the common law rule of construction to land court decrees. McCandless involved a boundary dispute in which an 'auwai (ditch) demarcated the boundary between two parcels. The Sanborn court quoted with approval the following language from McCandless: It has been decided again and again that the meander line is not a boundary, but that the body of water whose margin is meandered is the true boundary. 23 Haw. at 56. If this principle was applied to the instant case in a manner consistent with its application in Sanborn, the State would not be able to take title to the newly created land as it would be within the area described by natural monuments in the Zimrings' deed. If, as the majority states in Sanborn, 57 Haw. at ___, 562 P.2d 771, it has been the settled law since 1915, then the State's Attorney General clearly was on notice that the appellees claimed all land to the high water mark as recited in their deed and correctly and properly acknowledged by their dealings with appellees in negotiating an easement for a roadway over a portion of the newly created land that the new land, to the high water mark, belonged to appellees. C. The court decided that the government's right to take lava extensions to seashore boundaries was an inchoate right appurtenant to public land which was ceded by the Republic to the United States in 1898 and, upon the maturing of this right by the creation of the land in 1955, was ceded back to the State by the Admission Act of 1959. The Kingdom and the Republic, however, treated lava extensions as belonging to the abutting landowners. It is not disputed that the lava extension which is the subject of this case was created in 1955. Nor can it be disputed that the State of Hawaii did not come into existence until 1959. Thus any title to this land which may be claimed by the State must have devolved to the State from the United States government. The law which governed the transfer of property rights from the United States government to the new State of Hawaii was the Admission Act of 1959 (Public Law 86-3). Section 5(a) of that act contains the basic grant through which the State contends that it received title to the subject lava extension. The United States grants to the State of Hawaii, effective upon its admission to the Union, the United States title to all the public lands and other public property ... (emphasis added). Section 5(g) of the same act states: As used in this act, the terms lands and other properties includes public lands and other public properties, and the term `public lands and other public property' means and is limited to the lands and properties that were ceded to the United States by the Republic of Hawaii under the joint resolution of annexation approved July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 750) or that have been acquired in exchange for lands or properties so ceded (emphasis added). Thus for the State of Hawaii to have received title to the subject lava extensions from the United States in 1959, the State had to show that the Republic of Hawaii ceded these lands or the right to these lands to the government of the United States in 1898. Clearly the Republic could not cede lands not in existence but it arguably could cede an inchoate right to future lava extensions if such a right existed. As stated by the majority, the Republic could have ceded something less than its entire bundle of property rights and interests, yet it chose voluntarily to cede and quitclaim all of its property interest. Such intent appears in the joint resolution of annexation in which the Republic of Hawaii ceded to the United States: ... all other public property of every kind and description belonging to the Government of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance thereunto appertaining. (Resolution No. 55, of July 7, 1898, 30 Stat. 750, 2 Supp. R.S. 895) Therefore, it is clear that if the Government of the Republic of Hawaii did hold a right to take title of future lava extensions, this right was transferred to the United States Government in 1898. Yet nowhere is it argued, much less proven, that the Republic of Hawaii, or its predecessor in title, the Kingdom of Hawaii, claimed or recognized a property interest in future volcanic additions to the Islands. On the contrary, the appellees introduced substantial evidence, discussed below, which tended to show that the Kingdom of Hawaii did not claim title to all volcanic additions to the islands without regard to the ownership of the shoreline property. Even if appellees' evidence is not, as the majority holds, sufficient to prove an Hawaiian usage, it is certainly probative of the fact that the Kingdom did not recognize or claim an interest in future lava extensions. If the Kingdom did not assert its claim to lava extensions as they were created, but instead determined title to be in the abutting landowner, can it be realistically said that the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands held the right to all future lava extensions and ceded this right to the Republic of Hawaii which in turn ceded such right to the United States which in turn ceded this same right to the State of Hawaii? As this court stated in In Re Application of Ashford, 50 Haw. 314, 317, 440 P.2d 76, 78 (1968), Property rights are determined by the law in existence at the time such rights are vested. In Re Title of Pa Pelekane, 21 Haw. 175 (1912); Keelikolani v. Robinson, supra ; In Re Kakaako, 30 Haw. 666 (1928); Harris v. Carter, 6 Haw. 195 (1877). The law which was in existence at the time the alleged right to future lava extensions vested in the government was the law of the Kingdom of Hawaii; the law in existence at the time the land was created was the law of the United States. The evidence produced by the appellees and uncontroverted by the State clearly shows that under the laws of the Kingdom of Hawaii, title to lava extensions vested in the owner of the shorefront property to which the extension attached. Thus the property right to take title to future lava extensions vested not in the government but in the abutting landowner, whether private or public, and was not an inchoate right or appurtenance of public land which was ceded from the Republic to the United States or from the United States to the State of Hawaii.