Real Estate & Property Law

Yesterday, the Kauai circuit court granted a permanent injunction, and ordered that Kauai Springs's applications for three zoning permits should not have been denied by the Kauai Planning Commission in January 2007.  The case is an appeal from an agency decision under the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act (a procedure known in other jurisdictions as a petition for a writ of administrative mandate or a petition for a writ of mandamus).

As reported in today's Garden Island:

In a legal victory that was described by its attorney as a ?total home run,? the Kaua?i Springs bottled water company was granted three permits by 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe yesterday in a strong rebuke of obstacles put up by the Kaua?i County Planning Commission.

Kaua?i Springs owner Jim Satterfield, who attended the proceeding with some 10 family members, said that he was almost ?moved to tears? by the decision and categorized it as a ?huge success.?

Watanabe, who said she was happy that Satterfield was in the courtroom to witness her ruling, decided the Planning Commission had ?exceeded its jurisdiction? and was ?clearly erroneous? in originally denying the Class IV, zoning and special permits to the company last year.

. . .

Ever since the injunction was granted, allowing the company to stay in business while the merits of the case were being hashed out, Kaua?i Springs was ?operating under a cloud,? said attorney Robert Thomas of Honolulu firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert.

Read the entire TGI story here.  The briefs in the case and past news stories are posted here.