Court Opinion

ID: 9550845
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:43:28.497841+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:22:33.023544
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING AND DISSENTING OPINION OF
MARUMOTO, J.
I concur in the holding in Part V of the foregoing opinion of the court sustaining the determination of the circuit court that, for the purpose of arriving at the amount of just compensation to be paid in this case, Lot 3 had a value of $1.20 per square foot.
I also concur in the holding in Part IV of the opinion that the circuit court erred in awarding even a nominal amount to defendants for the portion of the area lying between the seaward boundary described in the land court decree and the line to which the seaward boundary moved inland by erosion *188inasmuch as such area became the property of the State when erosion took place.
In Part II of the opinion, it is stated: “We hold that registered ocean front property is subject to the same burdens and incidents as unregistered land, including erosion. HRS § 501-81. Thus the determination of the land court that the seaward boundary of Lot 3 is to be located along high water mark remains conclusive; however, the precise location of the high water mark on the ground is subject to change and may always be altered by erosion.”
I concur in that holding, subject to the following caveat: The wording of the holding is ambiguous because there is an ambiquity in the statement “the determination of the land court that the seaward boundary of Lot 3 is to be located along high water mark remains conclusive.” In the land court decree in this case, the seaward boundary was not described generally as being along the high water mark but was specifically located by metes and bounds. Thus, I read the holding to mean that the seaward boundary specifically delineated in the decree remained conclusive, until a change in the line was established by proof of erosion.
My concurrence in the holding does not mean that I consider a final land court decree of registration of oceanside land not to be res judicata with respect to the delineation therein of the seaward boundary of the land.
A land court decree, which has not been appealed and has therefore become final, is res judicata.
In every land court decree, HRS § 501-81 is impliedly incorporated as a part thereof. HRS § 501-81 provides: “Registered land, and ownership therein, shall in all respects be subject to the same burdens and incidents which attach by law to unregistered land.” Accretion and erosion are incidents which attach by law to unregistered land.
Thus, in the case of aland court decree, the doctrine of res judicata applies to the decree with the provision of HRS § 501-81 read into it by implication.
I think that, from the res judicata nature of a land court decree as stated above, where the seaward boundary of the registered land is described in the decree, the boundary must *189be presumed to remain along the described line, until a subsequent change is established by proof of accretion or erosion, the burden of proof of accretion being on the landowner and the burden of proof of erosion being on the State.
Turning now to dissent, I dissent from the holding in Part III of the opinion that “as a matter of law * * * where the wash of the waves is marked by both a debris line and a vegetation line lying further mauka, the presumption is that the upper reaches of the wash of the waves over the course of a year lies along the line marking the edge of vegetation growth,” and that the seaward boundary of Lot 3 be established along the vegetation line. (Emphasis supplied)
In so dissenting, I will not indulge in an extensive dissertation against the holding, for to do so will be but an exercise in futility. I merely point out that, in my opinion, the holding is plain judicial law-making. That is apparent from the quoted statement in the opinion that the holding is being made “as a matter of law,” and from the following reason given therefor: “Public policy, as interpreted by this court, favors extending to public use and ownership as much of Hawaii’s shoreline as is reasonably possible.” (Emphasis supplied)
In connection with such judicial law-making, I quote the following statement of Dean Roscoe Pound, which deserves more than a passing notice:
“It must be remembered that any attempt to set up new premises on a large scale by judicial lawmaking unduly impairs the stability of the legal and so of the economic order, since judicial lawmaking is retroactive whereas normally legislation prescribes for the future.” II Pound, Jurisprudence 453 (1959).