HAWSCT On Water, Public Trust Duties, And Autoapproval Requirements
by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation, March 1, 2014
The Hawaii Supreme Court has issued an opinion in Kauai Springs, Inc. v. Kauai Planning Comm'n, No. SCWC 29440 (Feb. 28, 2014). In its preview of the case, the court framed the issue thusly:
In its application, Kauai Springs argues that the ICA gravely erred by: 1) concluding that Kauai Springs impliedly assented to extend the time frame within which the Planning Commission was required to act on two of the permits; and 2) by remanding the case to the Planning Commission when the Commission already had the opportunity to make the relevant inquiries and denied the permits based on standards that the circuit court and ICA concluded were unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious. The Planning Commission responds that: 1) Kauai Springs’ conduct during the Commission’s proceedings was reasonably interpreted as manifesting assent to delaying action on the two permits; and 2) the ICA properly remanded the case because the circuit court’s conclusions of law with respect to the Commission’s public trust duties were erroneous.
We represent the petitioner, and we ended up on the short end of this opinion. Which means that we're not going to do more than post it, and let you read all 120-odd pages of the majority, and concurring and dissenting opinions yourself. Minds immeasurably superior to ours will have to do the analysis on this one, at least for now:
We posted the cert briefs here.
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