Opinion ID: 2550107
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The City's Initial and Amended Complaints

Text: On February 14, 2003, the City filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of the First Circuit against the Trustees to condemn certain leased fee interests in Kahala Beach pursuant to Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 101-13 (1993). The City filed an amended complaint on March 5, 2003. On October 10, 2003, the City filed a motion to amend its amended complaint and, subsequently, filed an amended motion to amend on October 31, 2003. In its amended motion, the City requested leave to add additional applicants to the condemnation proceeding, specifically, Ethel H. Bird (Unit 252) and George WM. and Julia Smith (Unit 346). The City's amended motion was heard on November 19, 2003. With respect to Bird and the Smiths, the court ruled: So, I grant the Motion to Amend by adding Bird and the Smiths. I can see no reason at all to leave them out. It doesn't make any sense to me that the City ... could find people who would be eligible either under the condominium or that the State of houselots and then say oh, well, I got to wait until I get another 25 of you to bring it. That is crazy and certainly inconsistent with the purpose of the law which was to put fee simple property in the hands of such owners. But, I do not think that those people can be used against or in the condemnation to constitute the minimum number that had to be there and remain throughout. I could imagine a situation where the Supreme Court would say, certainly not the facts, that if you had 30 and all 30 are qualified and you filed the complaint and then you added five more, you had 35, and, then something happened and after you had 35 qualified, you fell below the 25. Maybe then they would count the added. But, that's not the facts here. So, I don't need to speculate as to what  what that  whether it was  that that would happen or not. All I'm saying is I'm granting the motion to add George and Julia Smith and the Bird applicant with the understanding that they cannot be used to constitute the minimum 25 that under [ Hous. Fin. & Dev. Corp. v. Takabuki, 82 Hawai`i 172, 921 P.2d 92 (1996),] has to remain throughout. And, further, it doesn't make sense to me that the fact that this case even if I were wrong and you could add them as of today, if, as of yesterday, they weren't 25 then under Takabuki the authority has to terminate proceeding [sic]. On December 22, 2003, the Applicants filed a motion for reconsideration arguing, inter alia: (1) this court's opinion in Takabuki did not require that the City maintain the minimum number of applicants solely out of the group of lessees whose units were originally designated; (2) a liberal construction of ROH chapter 38 indicates that additional qualified applicants should be counted toward the required statutory minimum; and, (3) based on the language of Rules for Residential Condominium Cooperative and Planned Development Leasehold Conversion [hereinafter, DCS Rules] § 2-11(d)(1) (2000), Bird and the Smiths should be considered part of the original designation. The City joined in this motion. After a hearing on January 9, 2004, the circuit court ruled that this Court, after reconsideration and upon further deliberation, adheres to its earlier ruling that Applicants Bird and Smith [c]annot [c]ount [t]oward the [r]equired [s]tatutory [m]inimum [t]wenty-[f]ive [a]pplicants for [l]ease-to-[f]ee [c]onversion in [p]laintiff City and County of Honolulu's Amended Motion to Amend filed on October 31, 2003.