Life of the Land, Inc. v. Land Use Commission
| Decision Date | 11 May 1979 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 6167,6168,s. 6167 |
| Citation | 594 P.2d 1079,61 Haw. 3 |
| Parties | LIFE OF THE LAND, INC., a Hawaii non-profit corporation, and Charles O. Carr, Individually and on behalf of Life of the Land, Appellants, v. The LAND USE COMMISSION of the State of Hawaii, Eddie Tangen, Individually and in his official capacity, Shelley M. Mark, Individually and in his official capacity, Sunao Kido, Individually and in his official capacity, Alexander J. Napier, Individually and in his official capacity, Tanji Yamamura, Individually and in his official capacity, Stanley S. Sakahashi, Individually and in his official capacity, Edward K. Yanai, Individually and in his official capacity, James Carras, Individually and in his official capacity, Mitsuo Oura, Individually and in his official capacity, Christopher Cobb, in his official capacity, Hideto Kono, in his official capacity, the Estate of James Campbell and Does I through V, Appellees. LIFE OF THE LAND, INC., a Hawaii non-profit corporation, and Charles O. CARR, Individually and on behalf of Life of the Land, Appellants, v. The LAND USE COMMISSION of the State of Hawaii, Eddie Tangen, Individually and in his official capacity, Shelley M. Mark, Individually and in his official capacity, Sunao Kido, Individually and in his official capacity, Alexander J. Napier, Individually and in his official capacity, Tanji Yamamura, Individually and in his official capacity, Stanley S. Sakahashi, Individually and in his official capacity, Edward K. Yanai, Individually and in his official capacity, James Carras, Individually and in his official capacity, Mitsuo Oura, Individually and in his official capacity, Christopher Cobb, in his official capacity, Hideto Kono, in his official capacity, and the Estate of James Campbell, Appellees. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. An organization which opposes reclassification of properties and which is composed of members who live adjacent to the reclassified properties is a "person aggrieved" under HRS § 91-14(a), Hawaii Administrative Procedure Act.
2. Appellant has standing to challenge the orders of the Land Use Commission where it has been "aggrieved" by the orders and has "participated" in the agency hearings.
3. Appellant's appeals to the circuit court were within the time provided by HRS § 91-14(b), Hawaii Administrative Procedure Act, where Appellant filed its notice of appeal within thirty days after service of a certified copy of the final decision and order of the Land Use Commission.
Edward Cooper Brown, Honolulu, Scott R. Nakagawa, Honolulu, for appellants.
Benjamin M. Matsubara, Honolulu, for appellee Land Use Comm.
Cuyler E. Shaw, Ashford & Wriston, Honolulu, for appellee Estate of James Campbell.
Before RICHARDSON, C. J., and OGATA and MENOR, JJ. *
These appeals, which were consolidated for oral argument, concern the reclassification of 320 acres in Oneula, Oahu, and 655 acres in Ewa, Oahu, from agriculture to urban by the Land Use Commission of the State of Hawaii (hereinafter LUC).
All lands involved were owned by The Estate of James Campbell (hereinafter Campbell).
Life of the Land, a non-profit environmental corporation, and Charles Carr filed appeals to the circuit court from the LUC reclassification decisions.
Campbell filed in circuit court motions to dismiss the appeals for lack of standing and for failure to file timely appeals. The motions were granted and Life of the Land and Charles Carr "on behalf of Life of the Land" now appeal to this court from those decisions. On the appeals to this court, Charles Carr has not appealed in his own right. Hereinafter, Life of the Land is treated as the sole appellant.
We reverse.
In 1974, in conformance with HRS § 205-11 (1974), LUC conducted a periodic review of the district boundary classifications of all lands throughout the state of Hawaii. Within its review LUC considered the reclassification, from agriculture to urban, of lands situated in Oneula, Oahu, and around Ewa Town, Oahu, which were owned by Campbell.
LUC held two series of informal public workshops throughout the state to discuss all proposed district boundary reclassifications. Appellant, represented by Charles Carr, participated in those workshops.
On August 30, 1974, LUC held a public meeting to propose consideration of the reclassification of lands at subsequent public hearings.
After notifying the public, public hearings were held on October 9 and 12, 1974, to discuss the reclassification of the Oneula and Ewa lands.
The Oneula proposal called for reclassification of 532 acres from agriculture to urban. Campbell planned to create a residential, marina community which would contain 4,600 new homes, a 500-boat public marina and support a population of 30,000 by 1990. This proposal was one phase of a larger project involving approximately 1,030 acres.
The Ewa proposal called for reclassification of 862 acres from agriculture to urban. Campbell planned to create a new city involving 4,560 acres. This proposal was one phase of a larger project which would eventually encompass 12,000 acres and support thousands of people.
Charles Carr, representing appellant, did not testify at the Oneula public hearings because the October 9, 1974, hearing was disrupted by heated arguments from the audience, and therefore he did not have an opportunity to testify at that hearing. It is unclear whether or not he attempted to testify at a subsequent hearing on October 12, 1974. However, he had previously been assured by the chairman of the LUC that his written comments, objecting to the procedures followed by the LUC and questioning the environmental impact of the proposed actions, would be applied to every docket subject to the boundary review.
Charles Carr did read a prepared statement at the legislative portion of the October 12, 1974, Ewa public hearing.
On December 20, 1974, LUC held an action meeting and announced that the Oneula and Ewa lands would be reclassified from agriculture to urban.
On April 22, 1975, the Decision and Order reclassifying 320 acres of Oneula property to urban along with Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law was signed by the chairman of the LUC. Appellant received a copy of the decision on April 29, 1975.
On May 21, 1975, the Decision and Order reclassifying 655 acres of Ewa property to urban was signed and a copy received by appellant on June 5, 1975.
On May 28, 1975, appellant filed an appeal from the Oneula decision to the circuit court.
On July 3, 1975, appellant filed an appeal from the Ewa decision.
On July 8, 1975, Campbell filed in the circuit court a motion to dismiss the Oneula appeal for lack of standing and a failure to file a timely appeal.
On August 19, 1975, Campbell filed a similar motion from the Ewa appeal.
Both motions were heard on September 4 and October 1, 1975.
The judgments granting the Oneula motion were filed on October 31 and November 3, 1975, and the judgments granting the Ewa motion were filed on October 31 and November 5, 1975.
On February 20, 1976, appellant appealed to this court from the October 31 decisions.
1. Whether appellant had standing to sue under HRS § 91-14(a) (1975).
2. Whether appellant's appeals to the circuit court from the LUC decisions were timely under HRS § 91-14(b) (1975).
Standing has two basic requirements: first, one must be a person aggrieved and second, the aggrieved party must have participated in a contested case. Both requirements are discussed below.
Hawaii's Administrative Procedure Act, HRS § 91-14(a) (1975) states, "Any person aggrieved by a final decision and order in a contested case . . . is entitled to judicial review . . . ."
In East Diamond Head Ass'n v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 52 Haw. 518, 523, n. 5, 479 P.2d 796, 799 (1971) this court noted, "One whose legitimate interest is in fact injured by illegal action of an agency or officer should have standing . . . ."
In Re Application of Hawaiian Electric Co., 56 Haw. 260, 264, 535 P.2d 1102, 1105 (1975), was an appeal involving Life of the Land, at least two of whose members had testified that they had been subjected to higher utility rates through agency action. This court adopted the definition of an aggrieved party as one "whose personal or property right has been injuriously or adversely affected by an agency's action." This court stated that one who has to pay higher utility rates due to agency action is a person specially, personally and adversely affected.
Waianae Model Neighborhood Area Ass'n v. City and County of Honolulu, 55 Haw. 40, 514 P.2d 861 (1973) concerned a building permit for Makaha Beach Apartment Hotel. Plaintiff in that case alleged that the application for the building permit did not qualify for an exemption from the Comprehensive Zoning Code and sought to have the permit revoked.
Plaintiff was organized to improve the quality of the environment and living conditions within the community in which its members lived or owned property. This court found that Plaintiff had standing in its own right to challenge the building permit.
In East Diamond Head Ass'n v. Zoning Board of Appeals, supra, appellants were owners of homes located adjacent to property which received a zoning variance for industrial use. This court stated:
(T)o be a "person aggrieved" (who may attack the validity of a zoning board decision) one must be specially, personally and adversely affected as distinguished from one who is merely in the general class of a taxpayer whose only interest is to have strict enforcement of zoning regulations for the welfare of the entire community. There must be special injury or damage to one's personal or property rights as distinguished from the role of being only a champion of causes.
52 Haw. at 522, 479 P.2d at 798.
This court noted that each homeowner was immediately and...
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