Opinion ID: 1182352
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the background of the controversy

Text: This case arises out of a controversy among owners of land located in the Hanapepe Valley on the island of Kauai respecting their relative rights in the surface waters of the valley. [1] The action commenced on March 24, 1959, when a complaint was filed by McBryde Sugar Company, Limited, hereinafter referred to as McBryde, the owner of the ilis kupono [2] of Eleele and Kuiloa, situated in the southeastern portion of the valley. The defendants fell into three categories: (1) the Territory (now the State) of Hawaii, the owner of the ahupuaa of Hanapepe, located in the southwestern portion of the valley; (2) the partnership of Gay and Robinson and its individual partners, hereinafter referred to as Gay and Robinson, owners of the ilis kupono of Manuahi and Koula, located in the northwestern and northeastern portions of the valley, respectively, and; (3) all other owners of the lands in the Hanapepe Valley, hereinafter referred to as Small Owners. The two principal users of water in the Hanapepe Valley are McBryde and Gay and Robinson, both of which for a long period of time have availed themselves of substantial amounts of the surface waters of the valley for sugar cane irrigation both within and without the Hanapepe watershed. [3] The instant controversy was kindled in 1949 when Gay and Robinson implemented a greatly improved ditch and tunnel system for the transportation of water for irrigation purposes to the lands at Makaweli, a substantial portion of which is cultivated by the Olokele Sugar Company, outside and to the west of the Hanapepe watershed. Although this system enabled Gay and Robinson to appropriate significantly increased amounts of water from the Koula stream, such an increase was to the detriment of downstream landowners such as McBryde who thereafter were unable to take from the Hanapepe River the amount of water they had theretofore been taking. After an exhaustive trial on the merits, on January 30, 1969 the trial court filed amendments to its decision of December 10, 1968 delineating the rights of the parties with respect to appurtenant water, [4] prescriptive water, [5] normal surplus water, [6] and storm and freshet surplus water [7] in the Hanapepe Valley. The trial court's process of reasoning and conclusions in this regard are reported in McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson, supra 54 Haw. at 176-177, 504 P.2d at 1333-1334. Integral to the trial court's judgment were two principles of Hawaiian water law, which it considered to be solidly bottomed in Hawaiian judicial precedent and which were unquestioned by any of the parties: (1) that all normal surplus water belongs to the konohiki of the ahupuaa or ili kupono on which it originates, see, e.g., Territory v. Gay, 31 Haw. 376, 387-388 (1930), and; (2) that water rights however acquired are freely transferable to any land within or without the watershed on which they arose, so long as the water rights of others are not thereby deleteriously affected. See, e.g., Wong Leong v. Irwin, 10 Haw. 265, 270-272 (1896). On appeal to this court by McBryde, the State, and Gay and Robinson, many issues were raised, including, among other things, the correctness of the trial court's adjudications of the quantum of appurtenant water rights of the parties, the amount of water, if any, to which McBryde was entitled by prescriptive use, and the proper disposition of storm and freshet surplus water. This court upheld the findings of the trial court with respect to the amount of appurtenant water belonging to the State, McBryde, and the Small Owners, McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson, supra 54 Haw. at 187-189, 504 P.2d at 1339-1340, and affirmed in part and reversed in part the findings of the trial court as to the amount of appurtenant water to which Gay and Robinson was entitled. Id. at 189-190, 504 P.2d at 1340. This court also reversed the finding below that McBryde had acquired title to over two million gallons of water per day by prescriptive use. Id. at 198, 504 P.2d at 1344-1345. At this point, however, this court departed radically in two major respects from the reasoning of the trial court and the positions taken by the various parties. First, it held that all surplus water in the State, including normal and storm and freshet surpluses, [8] is the property of the State and not the property of the konohiki of the ahupuaa or ili kupono on which the water originates. Id. at 180-187, 504 P.2d at 1335-1339. This holding was grounded entirely on a specific portion of the Principles Adopted by the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles in Their Adjudication of Claims Presented to Them, adopted by the Land Commission on August 20, 1846 and approved by resolution in the Legislative Council on October 26, 1846, RLH 1925, Vol. II, pp. 2124, 2128 (originally enacted as L. 1847, at 81, 85) [hereinafter cited as Land Commission Principles], which announced that the Mahele left unimpaired the king's power [t]o encourage and even to enforce the usufruct of lands for the common good. [9] This provision, it was held, reserved to the king and, through subsequent governments, to the State, the control of all surplus surface waters in Hawaii for the common welfare of the Hawaiian people. Second, this court held that section 7 of the Enactment of Further Principles, originally published as L. 1850, ง 7, at 202, and presently compiled in HRS ง 7-1, [10] codified the doctrine of riparianism as it existed in Massachusetts and England in the mid-nineteenth century, and that under that doctrine water rights acquired by virtue of ownership of lands along the bank (ripa) of a stream or river were appurtenant exclusively to those parcels of land and could not be transferred to remote parcels. 54 Haw. at 191-198, 504 P.2d at 1341-1344. Because the above two principles, if correct, would have precipitated a revolutionary change in the Hawaiian system of water rights as it has been understood heretofore, see Hutchins passim, the court decided that additional enlightenment with respect to its further adherence to them would be helpful. Accordingly, the court granted the petitions for rehearing sought by McBryde, Gay and Robinson and the Small Owners, and centered the inquiry around the following issues: 1. The pertinent portion of HRS ง 7-1, which was first enacted on August 6, 1850, Laws 1850, and which has been in our statute books ever since, reads: The people shall also have a right to drinking water, and running water, and the right of way. The springs of water, running water, and roads shall be free to all, on all lands granted in fee simple; provided, that this shall not be applicable to wells and watercourses, which individuals have made for their own use. Is the foregoing statute material to the determination of the water rights of the parties in this case? If so, why, if not, why? 2. The parties in this action introduced evidence, as the record shows, to show that parcels of land in the Hanapepe Valley were entitled to appurtenant water rights for raising taro at the time of the Mahele or the Land Commission Award. The trial court found certain parcels were entitled to appurtenant water rights. Under what principle or theory of law are the owners entitled to apply the appurtenant water rights to parcels of land other than that to which the court found the right was appurtenant?