AHFI NEWS

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• Challenge 2008 in support of Hawaii Public Radio

Attorneys and staff of AHFI will be volunteering on Thursday, April 10 from 6 to 9am on radio station KHPR on day number 2 of Challenge 2008 in support of Hawaii Public Radio. As you may know, Hawaii Public Radio (FM 88.1) is largely dependent upon voluntary contributions from its listeners.  Without public support, there can be no public radio. Our firm is proud to support Hawaii Public Radio.  One of  the ways that we show that support is to participate in the Attorney Compliment Challenge. 

 

The way it works is this: our firm and other law firms pledge to HPR.  If a caller calls in during the Challenge, makes a pledge, and says something nice about an attorney, then that caller’s pledge is matched, dollar for dollar, by the pledges of the participating law firms, and, in addition, the complimented attorney is then contacted by our volunteers to see if he or she will match the pledge.  The names of the complimented attorneys and the compliments are broadcast live on the air, as well as the names of the persons making the compliments (unless they choose to be anonymous).

 

It turns out that many, many people leap at the opportunity.  Compliments have come from clients, family members, fellow attorneys, law firm employees, etc.  The compliments have ranged from many clients thanking attorneys for particularly meaningful and good legal representation, to thanking attorneys for coaching youth athletic teams, to thanking attorneys for voluntary work for charities, to boasting that a particular (nameless) attorney makes the best chili in Hawaii, etc.  It is easy to see why this particular part of the semi-annual HPR fund drives is always one of the most active and fun.

 

We encourage you to listen in to FM88.1 during the early morning hours on April 10 and help support Hawaii Public Radio.

• Trudy Burns Stone join AHFI as Of Counsel

Trudy Burns Stone has joined AHFI as Of Counsel and will be working with AHFI's Property and Business Law group.  Trudy, a licensed Realtor associate, focuses her practice in the area of real estate transactions.  She is the former managing partner of Chun, Kerr, Dodd, Beaman & Wong, LLLP, and former Chair of the Real Property and Financial Services Section of the HSBA.  

• LESSEES' LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION REINSTATED

On January 14, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated a lawsuit against the City and County of Honolulu brought by leasehold condominium owners at Discovery Bay. The Ninth Circuit concluded that the U.S. District Court of Hawaii failed to use the appropriate legal standard to analyze the Lessees' claim that the repeal violated their constitutional rights.

David Nakashima, lead counsel for Lessees, said that the decision was a significant step forward in a difficult case for leasehold condo owners. He is optimistic that the Lessees will eventually be awarded damages or be allowed to complete their fee acquisitions.

The lawsuit alleges that the City violated the United States Constitution when it repealed the lease-to-fee condominium conversion law in February 2005. The City's lease-to-fee condo conversion law allowed leasehold unit owners to use the City's power of eminent domain to acquire fee-simple interest in land under condo projects from landowners by force for fair market value. The Discovery Bay Lessees met all of the conversion law's requirements and were on the verge of condemnation when the City Council voted to repeal the law in January 2005.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra dismissed the Lessees' claims in July 2005, ruling that the City lawfully repealed the conversion law. The Ninth Circuit disagreed and held that Judge Ezra did not analyze Lessees' claims under the appropriate legal standard established by United States Supreme Court precedent. Accordingly, it sent the case back to Judge Ezra for further proceedings.

• Class certification granted in lawsuit to identify and provide services for homeless children

Judge Hellen Gillmor granted a class certification and temporary injunction in a lawsuit filed in Federal Court on behalf of homeless children against the Hawaii Department of Eduction. Filed in conjunction with Lawyers for Equal Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawsuit seeks to compel the DOE to provide services to homeless children as mandated by Federal law.

The lawsuit, filed by Lawyers for Equal Justice (“LEJ”), the ACLU of Hawaii (“ACLU”), and the law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing (“AHFI”), charges State and DOE officials with ignoring their legal obligations to provide homeless children with equal access to a free and appropriate public education in violation of the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (“Act”). The lawsuit also charges State officials with violating constitutional requirements to provide equal access to public education without regard to the status of homelessness.

The McKinney-Vento Act, passed by Congress in 1986, funds states to remove barriers to homeless children’s receipt of a public education. Hawaii requested and received about $200,000 last year. The Act also requires the DOE to identify homeless students and inform them of their rights. Under the Act, a student is “homeless” even if she or he is living in a shelter (including every kind of emergency or transitional shelter), living “doubled up” with friends or family, living at a motel, or living on the beach. DOE documents show that there are tens of thousands of homeless and “hidden homeless” in Hawaii, many of whom are school-aged children.

In deciding for the plaintiffs, Chief Judge Helen Gillmor found that the DOE’s current enrollment process and data collection procedures actually thwart the purposes of the Act, forcing homeless families to overcome daunting bureaucratic hurdles just to stay in school. Gillmor ruled that the DOE must do more to identify homeless children and ensure that they are allowed to stay in one school. She also ordered that this case can proceed as a class action, meaning that the Court’s ruling will benefit all homeless families in Hawaii.

Paul Alston, President and director of the law firm Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, argued the motions before the Court on Monday. He described the DOE as completely failing in its obligations: “This year they (the DOE) know they're serving only 300 homeless kids and only twenty out of eighteen-thousand hidden homeless kids. It's just a disaster and they're simply not doing what the federal law requires.”

“The DOE’s current procedures are nonsensical” said Daniel Gluck, ACLU of Hawaii senior staff attorney. “The DOE blames homeless parents for not knowing their rights, but the DOE has done virtually nothing to let parents know what their rights are in the first place. This is compounded by the fact that the DOE’s own enrollment forms and administrative rules are illegal, actually preventing these children from being identified and helped.”

The lawsuit names as defendants Judy Tonda, Department of Education (“DOE”) Homeless Coordinator; Patricia Hamamoto, DOE Superintendent; Robert McClelland, DOE Systems Accountability Office Director; Board of Education members Karen Knudsen, John Penebacker, Herbert Watanabe, Breene Harimoto, Dr. Eileen Clarke, Dr. Lei Ahu Isa, Kim Coco Iwamoto, Mary Cochran, Maggie Cox, Cec Heftel, Denise Matsumoto, Donna Ikeda, and Garrett Toguchi; and Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Department of Health Director.

Link to local news coverage:
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/15537092.html

• Lawsuit filed to stop illegal vacation rentals on North Shore

A lawsuit was filed in 1st Circuit Court of the State of Hawai`i alleging that owners of residential properties on the North Shore, assisted by companies that advertise over the Internet, illegally rent out their properties in violation of city zoning laws prohibiting short-term rentals (rentals of less than 30 days). Lead attorney in the lawsuit is Thomas Bush.

Links to local news coverage:
Honolulu Advertiser, Jan 24, 2008
KHON2, HI - Jan 23, 2008 (video)
KHNL-TV/KHBC/KOGG, HI - Jan 24, 2008

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