Opinion ID: 2607272
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The other requirements of Kalipi

Text: In addition to creating the undeveloped land requirement, see Kalipi, 66 Haw. at 7-8, 656 P.2d at 749, the court in Kalipi made the following observations concerning claims of traditional gathering rights under HRS § 1-1: [24] We perceive the Hawaiian usage exception to the adoption of the common law to represent an attempt on the part of the framers of the statute to avoid results inappropriate to the isles' inhabitants by permitting the continuance of native understandings and practices which did not unreasonably interfere with the spirit of the common law. The statutory exception is thus akin to the English doctrine of custom whereby practices and privileges unique to particular districts continued to apply to the residents of those districts even though in contravention of the common law. This is not to say that we find that all the requisite elements of the doctrine of custom were necessarily incorporated in § 1-1. Rather we believe that the retention of a Hawaiian tradition should in each case be determined by balancing the respective interests and harm once it is established that the application of the custom has continued in a particular area. In this case, Plaintiff's witnesses testified at trial that there have continued in certain [ahupua`a] a range of practices associated with the ancient way of life which required the utilization of the undeveloped property of others and which were not found in § 7-1. [25] Where these practices have, without harm to anyone, been continued, we are of the opinion that the reference to Hawaiian usage in § 1-1 insures their continuance for so long as no actual harm is done thereby. Oni v. Meek, [2 Haw. 87, (1858)], does not preclude this conclusion, for in that case the application of the doctrine of custom was argued and the doctrine itself was not rejected.... Moreover, the language in Oni respecting the conclusiveness of § 7-1 does not necessarily preclude application of the doctrine. Id. at 10-11, 656 P.2d at 751 (citations omitted) (footnote renumbered and internal citation added) (emphases added). [26] In reaching its conclusion regarding the continued existence of customary rights, the Kalipi court necessarily rejected the appellee's contentions that 1) any customary rights which might otherwise have been retained by § 1-1 have been abrogated by judicial precedent[,] and 2) no customary rights other than those found in ... [HRS § 7-1] survived the [ M&amacr;hele ]. [27] Id. at 9-10, 656 P.2d at 750. Oni does not stand for the proposition that customary rights, which had not yet been formally established through judicial proceedings, were extinguished sub silentio by the M&amacr;hele or its associated legal developments. Oni merely rejected one particular claim based upon an apparently non-traditional practice that had not achieved customary status in the area where the right was asserted. The Kalipi court implicitly acknowledged the possibility of recognizing certain customary rights, under HRS § 1-1, to gather items that are not specifically delineated in HRS § 7-1. See supra note 25 & accompanying text (quoting Kalipi, 66 Haw. at 10 & n. 4, 656 P.2d at 751 & n. 4). However, the court did not fully embrace the opportunity to clarify Oni with respect to the potential application of the doctrine of custom. [28] We believe that the Kalipi court's preoccupation with residency requirements under HRS § 7-1 obfuscated its cursory examination of Kalipi's alternative claim based on customarily and traditionally exercised Hawaiian rights. [29] Accordingly, we read the discussion of customary rights in Oni and Kalipi as merely informing us that the balance of interests and harms clearly favors a right of exclusion for private property owners as against persons pursuing non-traditional practices or exercising otherwise valid customary rights in an unreasonable manner. On the other hand, the reasonable exercise of ancient Hawaiian usage is entitled to protection under article XII, section 7. See Pele, 73 Haw. at 618-21, 837 P.2d at 1269-72 (holding that rights primarily associated with residence in a particular ahupua`a under HRS § 7-1 might have extended beyond those bounds through ancient Hawaiian custom preserved in HRS § 1-1); id. at 620, 837 P.2d at 1272 (holding that article XII, section 7 reaffirmed  all such rights). Traditional and customary rights are properly examined against the law of property as it has developed in this state. Thus, the regulatory power provided in article XII, section 7 does not justify summary extinguishment of such rights by the State merely because they are deemed inconsistent with generally understood elements of the western doctrine of property.