OHA files motion for summary judgement in Maunakea lawsuit

News Release from Office of Hawaiian Affairs

On Monday, March 2, 2020, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in connection with its lawsuit against the State of Hawaiʻi and the University of Hawaiʻi over their continuous mismanagement of Maunakea.

“It is beyond doubt that the state’s mismanagement amounts to a breach of trust and a breach of its fiduciary duties in its management and disposition of the Native Hawaiian Trust, including Mauna Kea,” said OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna, Chair of OHA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Maunakea. “The facts in this case are indisputable, with even the Governor himself proclaiming that the state has failed Maunakea.”

OHA filed its lawsuit in 2017 after it became clear that neither the State nor the University of Hawaiʻi would resolve serious, long-neglected management issues related to Maunakea and work towards a solution that included balancing their fiduciary duties to the Native Hawaiian community with their primary focus – building telescopes on the mauna.

That the State has “failed” Maunakea was the conclusion of Governor David Ige who publicly stated on May 26, 2015: “[W]e have in many ways failed the mountain. Whether you see it from a cultural perspective or from a natural resource perspective, we have not done right by a very special place and we must act immediately to change that […]”

More information on OHA’s Maunakea lawsuit can be found at www.oha.org/maunakea.

LINK: OHA’s Motion for Summary Judgement

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