Opinion ID: 1386452
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Right of the Successors of the Original Occupants To Continued Religious and Educational Uses of the Lots Until Such Uses Are Abandoned

Text: Although the fee to the Holualoa and Kahalu'u lots is in the State, and although it is well established that adverse possession may not run against the sovereign, [7] this court further finds that the United Churches have acquired an equitable right, akin to a prescriptive easement, to continue to use the lots for religious and educational purposes until such uses are abandoned. Our finding is based largely on those facts which the trial court relied upon in finding adverse possession as against the heirs of Victoria Kamamalu. But at the same time we affirm the trial court's rejection of the United Churches' alternate argument that the doctrine of a presumed lost grant of title should be applied in the instant case. In contrast to the doctrine of adverse possession, the doctrine of a presumed lost grant, arising out of adverse, exclusive, and uninterrupted possession for a substantial number of years, may be applied against the sovereign. United States v. Fullard-Leo, 331 U.S. 256, 67 S.Ct. 1287, 91 L.Ed. 1474 (1947) (applying pre-annexation Hawaii law); In re Kioloku, 25 Haw. 357 (1920). However, the trial court concluded that any presumption of a lost grant of title in the instant case was rebutted by (1) the explicit Royal Patent grants of the lots to the Board of Education in 1882, (2) an application in 1911 by the United Churches' predecessor requesting a grant of the Kahalu'u lot (thus admitting a present lack of title), and (3) subsequent events and conduct on the part of the plaintiff, apparently referring to written statements in the 1960's by various officers of the United Churches' parent organization in Honolulu, admitting that title is in the government. It is well established that the presumption of a lost grant may be rebutted. In re Kioloku, supra, 25 Haw. at 366; United States v. Chavez, 175 U.S. 509, 520, 20 S.Ct. 159, 44 L.Ed. 255 (1899). Further rebuttal of the lost grant theory is given in part I, supra, where we hold that title to the lots was vested in the government under the School Lands Act of 1850. The trial court found that the presumption of a lost grant had been rebutted, despite the following evidence establishing a longstanding occupation of the lots by the United Churches under a good faith claim of right: (1) continuous user since mid-nineteenth century; [8] (2) the United Churches' 1912 petition for a charter of incorporation (subsequently approved by the treasurer and governor of the Territory) in which an appendix purported to list property now held by the United Churches including Land and building at Holualoa and Land and Building at Kahaluu; (3) a 1939 warranty deed from the United Churches' parent organization to the County of Hawaii, purporting to grant a portion of the Kahalu'u parcel (obviously for road widening purposes); (4) a 1948 letter, from the territorial Commissioner of Public Lands to a third party interested in acquiring the Holualoa parcel, wherein the Commissioner stated that the parcel belonged to the United Churches' parent organization; (5) testimony by the current pastor of Moku'aikaua Church that when he checked the state tax maps in the early 1960's the lots were shown under the name of the United Churches' parent organization; and (6) testimony by the pastor that the people had told him we own it [the lots]. We owned it ever since the early 1880's. Although we are constrained to agree with the trial court that the presumption of a lost grant of title has been rebutted by the circumstances outlined supra, nevertheless, the above evidence showing religious and educational uses by the United Churches and its predecessors since the infancy of modern Hawaiian property law, under a good faith claim of right, leads us to the conviction that, under the special facts of this case, justice requires our recognition that the United Churches possess limited equitable rights in the lots. The above circumstances rebutting a lost grant rebut the existence of a grant of title. They do not rebut a presumption of a lost grant of lesser rights. In the law of prescriptive easements, it is well established that a lost grant of easements may be presumed. Lalakea v. Hawaiian Irrigation Co., 36 Haw. 692, 706 (1944), and cases cited therein. In furtherance of basic considerations of justice and equity, and by analogy with the law regarding presumed lost grants of easements, we hold that the United Churches possess equitable rights in the lots which entitle the churches to continue to use the lots for religious and educational purposes, including burial purposes, until such uses are abandoned. [9] The State, as holder of the title, is free to use and develop the lots so long as the State does not interfere substantially with religious and educational uses by the churches. As a matter of sound administrative policy, the State presumably will in any event give full consideration to the historical and cultural values which have attached to the lots. The case is remanded for entry of judgment recognizing title in the State but also recognizing the enjoyment of equitable rights by the United Churches. OGATA, J., and LEONARD Y. SHINTAKU, Circuit Judge, concur.