Property Law Keyed to Cribbet
Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff
Facts
Historically, Hawaii was settled by Polynesian immigrants who developed an economy around a feudal land tenure system, the result of which was to concentrate land ownership in the hands of a few. In 1967, the Hawaii legislature enacted the Land Reform Act of 1967 (Act), which created a mechanism for condemning residential tracts and for transferring ownership of the condemned fee simples to the existing lessees. If 25 eligible tenants of at least half the tenants on a five acre or more residential tract request that their homes be condemned, then the Hawaii Housing Authority (HHA) is authorized to hold a public hearing to determine if the proposed condemnation will effectuate the public purposes of the Act, and if the HHA find the public purposes will be served, then HHA is authorized to designate some of the tracts for acquisition. The prices are set by condemnation trial or by negotiation between lessors and lessees. HHA then acquires the land of the former fee owners’ full right, title and interest in the land. Then the land is sold to the lessees by HHA. In 1977, HHA held a public hearing to begin condemnation proceedings of some of Appellees’ lands. In 1978, HHA ordered Appellees to negotiate with certain lessees to determine a price for the land. HHA then ordered Appellees to submit to compulsory arbitration. Instead of submiting, the Appellees filed suit in the district court, asking that the Act be declared unconstitutional and that its enforcement be restrained. The district court held the compulsory arbitration portion of the Act unconstitutional, but ultimately upheld the rest of the Act. The district court found that the Act was within the state’s police power and that the means the legislature chose to serve those goals were not arbitrary, capricious or selected in bad faith. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court and held that the transfers under the Act were not like those previously held to be p ublic uses within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. On an application of HHA and other private appellants the case was submitted to be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
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