Midkiff v. Tom, Civ. No. 79-0096.

• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Hawaii
• Citation: 483 F. Supp. 62
• Decision Date: 19 December 1979
• Parties: Frank E. MIDKIFF, Richard Lyman, Jr., Hung Wo Ching, Matsuo Takabuki and Myron B. Thompson, Trustees of the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Plaintiffs, v. Paul A. TOM, Tony Taniguchi, Wilbert K. Eguchi, Wayne T. Takahashi, Lawrence N. C. Ing, Nobuyoshi Tamura, Andrew I. T. Chang, and David C. Slipher, Commissioners of the Hawaii Housing Authority; Franklin Y. K. Sunn, Executive Director of the Hawaii Housing Authority; and Hawaii Housing Authority, Defendants, and Wai-Kahala Tract "H" Association, Inc.; Halawa Hills Landsale Committee; Awakea Association; Alii Shores Community Association; Enchanted Hills, Unit I; Portlock Community Association (Maunalua Beach); Kokohead Community Lease-Fee, Inc.; West Marina Community Association; Kalama Valley Community Association; Maunalua Triangle-Koko Kai Community Association, Inc.; Hahaione Valley Community Association, Inc.; Kamiloiki Community Association; Lunalilo Marina Community Association; Mariners Ridge and Cove Fee/Lease Conversion Committee; Spinnaker Isle Association; Waialae Iki Community Association; Waiau Community Association; Kahala Community Association, Inc.; Kahala Community Fee Purchase Fund and Halawa Valley Estates Fee Conversion Corporation, Intervenors.
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 79-0096.

483 F. Supp. 62

Frank E. MIDKIFF, Richard Lyman, Jr., Hung Wo Ching, Matsuo Takabuki and Myron B. Thompson, Trustees of the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Plaintiffs,
v.
Paul A. TOM, Tony Taniguchi, Wilbert K. Eguchi, Wayne T. Takahashi, Lawrence N. C. Ing, Nobuyoshi Tamura, Andrew I. T. Chang, and David C. Slipher, Commissioners of the Hawaii Housing Authority; Franklin Y. K. Sunn, Executive Director of the Hawaii Housing Authority; and Hawaii Housing Authority, Defendants,
and
Wai-Kahala Tract "H" Association, Inc.; Halawa Hills Landsale Committee; Awakea Association; Alii Shores Community Association; Enchanted Hills, Unit I; Portlock Community Association (Maunalua Beach); Kokohead Community Lease-Fee, Inc.; West Marina Community Association; Kalama Valley Community Association; Maunalua Triangle-Koko Kai Community Association, Inc.; Hahaione Valley Community Association, Inc.; Kamiloiki Community Association; Lunalilo Marina Community Association; Mariners Ridge and Cove Fee/Lease Conversion Committee; Spinnaker Isle Association; Waialae Iki Community Association; Waiau Community Association; Kahala Community Association, Inc.; Kahala Community Fee Purchase Fund and Halawa Valley Estates Fee Conversion Corporation, Intervenors.

Civ. No. 79-0096.

United States District Court, D. Hawaii.

December 19, 1979.

483 F. Supp. 63

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

483 F. Supp. 64

Clinton R. Ashford, Ashford & Wriston, Rosemary T. Fazio, G. Richard Morry, Earl T. Sato, Hamilton, Gibson, Nickelsen, Rush & Moore, Honolulu, Hawaii, for plaintiffs

R. Brian Tsujimura, Allan G. Kawada, Deputy Attys. Gen., Wayne Minami, Atty. Gen., State of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, for defendants.

Dennis E. W. O'Connor, James K. Tam, John Francis Perkin, David A. Nakashima, Hoddick, Reinwald, O'Connor & Marrack, Honolulu, Hawaii, for intervenors Wai-Kahala Tract H Ass'n, Inc., et al.

James H. Case, A. Bernard Bays, Carlsmith, Carlsmith, Wichman & Case, Honolulu, Hawaii, for intervenors Kahala Community Ass'n, Inc. and Kahala Community Ass'n Fee Purchase Fund.

Thomas T. Watts, Kemper & Watts, Honolulu, Hawaii, for intervenors Halawa Valley Estates Fee Conversion Corp.

James A. Stubenberg, James H. Lawhn, Stubenberg, Shigemura, Roney & Gniffke, Honolulu, Hawaii, for intervenors Portlock Community Ass'n (Maunalua Beach); Kokohead Community Lease-Fee, Inc.; West Marina Community Ass'n; and Hahaione Valley Community Ass'n, Inc.

AMENDED MEMORANDUM DECISION

SAMUEL P. KING, Chief Judge.

The Trustees of the Estate of Bernice Pauahi Bishop¹ filed suit in this Court on February 28, 1979, against the Commissioners and Executive Director of the Hawaii Housing Authority and the Hawaii Housing Authority itself, claiming the Hawaii Land Reform Act, now chapter 516 of the Hawaii

483 F. Supp. 65

Revised Statutes, was unconstitutional. Chapter 516 allows the State to use the power of eminent domain in order to condemn certain residential land and then sell it to the residential lessees. The Hawaii Housing Authority is given the power and duty to carry out the provisions of chapter 516

In Hawaii, a few landholders, including the Bishop Estate, own large tracts of residential land. It has been the policy of these landholders to offer long-term leases to individual lessees, rather than to offer residential lots in fee. Although in recent years some of the leased land has been sold to individual lessees, much of the land is still not available for purchase. The Legislature of the State of Hawaii viewed this system of landholding as injurious to the well-being of the people of Hawaii, and adopted chapter 516 in order to allow longterm residential leaseholders the opportunity to buy in fee the land they occupy under a lease.

One of the provisions of chapter 516 provides for a compulsory arbitration procedure that sets the compensation to be paid the fee owners when the land is condemned. A broad temporary restraining order was issued by me on February 28, 1979, and a modified temporary restraining order, enjoining only the implementation of the mandatory arbitration provisions of the statute, was issued on March 27, 1979. A preliminary injunction, declaring those provisions unconstitutional was issued on May 8, 1979. D.C., 471 F.Supp. 871. In my opinion of May 8, 1979, I indicated that the remainder of chapter 516 was probably constitutional. Plaintiffs' constitutional challenge to the remainder of the statute is that the taking of property for the purpose of reselling it to the residential lessees is not for a public purpose, and hence violative of the Fifth Amendment command: "Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Plaintiffs have urged this Court to conduct a trial, weigh evidence, and make what is in essence an a priori determination of whether the takings authorized by chapter 516 are for a public use. Plaintiffs intend to show that each and every legislative rationale for the statute is wrong.² They claim that if all the economic justifications for the statute are disproved, all that is left are social justifications — such as the social engineering goal of land redistribution. These social goals, contend the plaintiffs, cannot alone justify the taking as being for a public use. Plaintiffs concede that the legislative findings as to the economic justifications for the statute should be given deference, but argue that the standard for determining whether the taking is for a public use is not whether the legislative findings have a rational basis. They do not point to any particular standard to be used by the Court, except to say that the Court must make a new judicial determination. The plaintiffs indicated at oral argument that they view the question of whether the taking is for a public use as an economic and factual question rather than a legal one.

This Court disagrees. I must make a judicial determination of whether the taking is for a public purpose, but that determination is limited in scope to the question of whether the plaintiffs were denied substantive due process. The goal, the purpose, the raison d'être of the statute must be within the purview of the State's police power, and the means chosen by the Legislature to achieve that goal must not be arbitrary, capricious, or in bad faith. If the Court determines (1) that any possible rationale for the statute, expressed or not, is within the bounds of the State's police power, and (2) that the statute is not arbitrary or the product of legislative bad faith, then the statute is constitutional.

The starting point in any legal analysis is Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 75 S.Ct. 98,

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99 L.Ed. 27 (1954). In that case the Supreme Court held constitutional the District of Columbia Redevelopment Act of 1945. That Act provided for the comprehensive use of the eminent domain power to redevelop slum areas, and also provided for the possible later sale or lease of the condemned lands to private interests. The Court discussed whether the takings authorized by the Act were for a public purpose

Subject to specific constitutional limitations, when the legislature has spoken, the public interest has been declared in terms well-nigh conclusive. In such cases the legislature, not the judiciary, is the main guardian of the public needs to be served by social legislation, whether it be Congress legislating concerning the District of Columbia citation omitted or the States legislating concerning local affairs. citations omitted This principle admits of no exception merely because the power of eminent domain is involved. The role of the judiciary in determining whether that power is being exercised for a public purpose is an extremely narrow one. citations omitted

Public safety, public health, morality, peace and quiet, law and order — these are some of the more conspicuous examples of the traditional application of the police power to municipal affairs. Yet they merely illustrate the scope of the power and do not delimit it.

348 U.S. at 32, 75 S.Ct. at 102. The Supreme Court viewed the question of whether the takings were for a public purpose in the same way that it viewed any substantive due process claim. The key question was whether the object of the statute was within the police power authority of the legislature.

Once the object is within the authority of Congress, the right to realize it through the exercise of eminent domain is clear. For the power of eminent domain is merely the means to the end. citations omitted Once the object is within the authority of Congress, the means by which it will be attained is also for Congress to

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