21 Haw. 441 | Haw. | 1913
Lead Opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT BY
(Perry, J., Dissenting in Part).
This is a bill to declare a trust, to direct a conveyance, and for an injunction against the prosecution of an action at law. The defendants appeal from a decree entered granting the relief prayed for.
It will be necessary in order to properly understand the case to refer to the former decision in this case reported in 14 Haw. 651, and to the cases of Atcherley v. Lewers & Cooke, 18 Haw. 625, and In re Lewers & Cooke, 19 Haw. 47 and 334; and to the report of the same case on appeal, Lewers & Cooke v. Atcherley, 222 U. S. 285.
Since this case was last before this court Lyle A. Dickey and Edward M. Watson have been joined as parties defendant, Mrs. Atcherley having executed a deed purporting to convey to them an interest in the land in dispute.
Without repeating in detail the facts and circumstances which led up to the controversy between these parties and have brought it again to the attention of this court it may be well to refer
In so far as rights of property in land existed and were recognized in these Islands prior to the establishment of the land coinmission, the chiefess Kaniu was the owner of the land in dispute when she gave it by oral will, which later was duly proven in court, to her foster son, David Kalakaua, a boy about seven or eight years of age; that by the same will the husband, Kinimaka, was made the testamentary guardian of the child to “take charge” of the land for him; that upon the establishment of the land commission Kinimaka presented a claim in his own right and received an award of this and other land in his own name. On reaching the age of majority Kalakaua, on December 30th, 1856, brought.suit in equity against Kinimaka seeking to have the defendant declared to be a trustee for the plaintiff and to compel a conveyance to him of certain lands, including the land in dispute; that Kinimaka died without having filed an answer in the cause; that a new suit was commenced against the widow and minor children (by his second wife) of Kinimaka; this suit was contested by the widow and the duly appointed guardian of the minor defendants, testimony was taken, and the case proceeded to a point where the plaintiff' filed a discontinuance except as to the land in dispute and one other piece, it being recited in the discontinuance that the plaintiff, “in consideration of certain sums of money paid by Kinimaka during his lifetime, for his (plaintiff’s) use and benefit, relinquishes all right to any and all land now included in the Estate of said Kinimaka, and set forth in the petition in the above entitled cause, and discontinue my action for the same, saving and excepting” two lands; that on the same day a decree was entered in the cause directing Armstrong as guardian of the three children to convey to the plaintiff the two lands referred to; and that the conveyance so directed to be made seems never to have been executed. Had the entry of that decree been followed by the conveyance to Kalakaua of the lands in question
Notwithstanding the statement made in the Lewers & Cooke case (19 Haw. 18) that there had been no reversal of the facts found by the court of land registration, the fact found by that court that Kinimaka “was the natural guardian of the minor” was not included in the findings of fact certified up by this court on the appeal to the Hnited States supreme court. ' And the fact that the guardianship relation existed, vitally important though it was, seems to have received scant consideration in that case. That Kinimaka was the testamentary guardian of Kalakaua’s property seems to be beyond the range of dispute at this time. If the relation existed in fact a question as to the regularity of the appointment would not prevent the assertion of any rights the ward would otherwise have against the guardian. “It is not essential that a legal guardianship
We are satisfied that this court fell into error in the Lewers & Cooke case in taking the view that the equity suit before Chief Justice Allen constituted an. attack on the award of the land commission and that the decree in that suit amounted to a setting aside of the award. None of the prior decisions in this jurisdiction which were cited in support of the view taken are authority for the conclusion reached, as an examination of them will show.
Kukiiahu v. Gill, 1 Haw. 54. That was an action of trespass upon land. The defendant claimed under a royal patent dated in 1849 and an anterior deed from one Kalua. Plaintiff claimed under a royal patent dated in 1850 which was based on a land commission award. As to the merits of the respective claims under the patents, it was pointed out that that of the defendant was subject to the rights of natives and, therefore, subject to the plaintiff’s title under his award. And as to the claim under the deed of Kalua it was shown that both the plaintiff and Kalua were claimants for the land before the land commission and that the contest was decided in favor of the plaintiff. It was the judgment of the land commission in that contest that resulted in the award to the plaintiff, and it was that judgment, which under the law was final unless reversed on appeal to the supreme court, there having been no such appeal, that was held could not be reopened on the allegation that the plaintiff had prevailed before the land commission upon false testimony. It was an attempt to show in an action at law that the award of the land commission was erroneous.
Kalakaua v. Keaweamahi, 4 Haw. 577. In that case the plaintiffs sought relief in equity because of fraud alleged to have been committed by defendants’ ancestor upon the ancestor of plaintiffs’ grantor. The case was heard upon bill and demurrer. It appeared that one Kaunuohua (under whom plaintiffs claimed) who was the wife of Moehonua (under whom defendants
The court held it could not assume that the land commission had no authority for issuing the award in the form in which it was issued, and that the failure to record evidence to sustain the award would not vitiate it. Other points were involved. The demurrer was sustained with leave to amend. In that case also it was attempted to show that the award was erroneous. A review of the proceedings of the land commission was sought. If Kaunuohua’s heirs, who, it must be assumed were sui juris, appeared and contested the matter with Moehonua, the decision of the land commission against them was conclusive in the collateral proceeding, and if they did not contest with Moehonua they were in default and the award was equally conclusive. Their only possible remedy was by appeal from the judgment of the land commission.
Kaai v. Mahuka, 5 Haw. 354. That was a bill to declare a trust, but there was no element of trust involved. It seems that two brothers, Mahuka and Kaai!. were entitled to an award of land in common; that Mahuka presented a claim for the land to the land commission in his own name, and at the hearing admitted that his brother had an equal right with him; that the award was headed “Mahuka and Kaai” but the grant was to Mahuka alone. The learned chancellor said that Kaai “may have, for all we know, relinquished his claim by an unrecorded deed now lost. It is to be presumed that he was aware of the award to Mahuka alone, and that he consented to it.” Clearly, if Kaai had any fault to find with the award it was for him to follow the remedy which the law gave him by appealing to the supreme court.
Estate of Kekauluohi, 6 Haw. 172. That was a petition in probate to establish a lost will before Mr. Justice Judd in 1876. After holding that the contents of the will, which, it was claimed, devised certain lands, some of which the testatrix owned and some she did not own, had not been proven, the learned justice pointed out that the fact that the will must have taken effect upon the death of the testatrix, June 7th, 1845, furnished a basis for claims for land “arising previously to the tenth day of December, 1845,” which should have been, and, it seems, in fact were, presented to the land commission for confirmation, furnished an additional reason for refusing the application.
Thurston v. Bishop, 7 Haw. 421. That was an action of ejectment instituted by the minister of the interior of the Hawaiian Kingdom against the trustees of the estate of B. P. Bishop, deceased, to recover certain land.held by the defendants. The plaintiff claimed that as the land had not heen awarded by the land commission or granted by the government the title was in the government. The court found that the sole question involved was whether Lot Kamehameha, from whom the defendants claimed, was barred of his rights in the land (it being conceded that he would have been entitled to an award of the land had his claim been presented) by reason of his own or any one’s failure to present the claim within the time required by law to the land commission, Lot Kamehameha being a minor. The question was answered in the affirmative. It was held that it was the duty of the minor’s guardian (his father) to have made claim for the land on behalf of his ward and that his failure so to do was binding on the minor. -
The question now presented is whether a minor on coming of age could obtain relief in equity against a guardian who had,
The case of the guardian of a minor obtaining an award in his own name of land belonging to his ward is analogous to the case of a guardian who purchases land with money belonging to the ward and, in violation of his fiduciary duty, intentional or otherwise, takes the title in his own name. In such • a case, it is well settled, equity, regarding the land as being the property of the ward, will declare and enforce a constructive trust in favor of the ward and order the conveyance of the legal title. 3 Pom. Eq. Jur. Secs. 1052, 1058.
Where, as was shown in the case of Kalakaua v. Pai and Armstrong, an award of land had been obtained by the guardian during the ward’s minority, and the ward had asserted his right without delay after coming of age by instituting suit against the guardian and, upon his death, his widow and devisees, the appropriate relief, if complainant was entitled to relief, undoubtedly would be a declaration of trust and an order to convey the legal title. The bill of complaint in that case alleged the death, testate, of Kaniu in 1843; the devise to the complainant who at that time was an infant; the designation of Kinimaka as testamentary guardian of the property of the complainant; the discovery, on complainant’s coming of age, that his guardian had fraudulently procured certain awards of lands in his own name; the admission of Kaniu’s will to probate; the title to the lands in Kinimaka in trust for the use and benefit of the complainant; the death of Kinimaka in 1851, leaving a widow and three children; and that the procuring of said awards by Kinimaka in his own name was contrary to equity and good conscience. The complainant prayed for a decree declaring that Kinimaka procured the awards and held possession of the lands for the use and benefit of the complainant; that the widow and the guardian of the children be ordered to convey all their
If A, by fraud, obtains a judgment against B, B may obtain equitable relief against the enforcement of the judgment by showing the fraud and asking equity to intervene because of it. Broadly speaking it may be called an attack on the judgment though equity acts in personam. But if A obtains a valid judgment against B and secures the fruits of that judgment, and by reason of A’s relation to C, A is the constructive trustee for 0 of those fruits, C may proceed in equity to take them from A. The suit of C against A clearly would not constitute an attack on the judgment against B, but would assume and maintain its validity. Such is the case here. The suit before Chief Justice Allen was not an attack on the award of the land commission; it was not an attempt to review the proceedings of the land commission or to correct or set aside the award to Kinimaka. On the contrary, it assumed the correctness of the judgment of the land commission and the validity of the award. It was an entirely new proceeding based upon the assertion that the legal title to the land was vested in Kinimaka and his heirs by and under a valid award issued by the land commission, but that because of the other facts averred, the defendants held as con
Within these principles, then, the decree of 1858 was not erroneous but right. We do not impugn, but re-affirm, the doctrine so often announced that the awards of the land commission were final and conclusive if not appealed from within the time allowed by the statute, but we do say that the proceeds of such an award, like the fruits of a judgment at law, may be subjected to the equitable rights of others where those rights, if existing prior to the judgment, were suppressed through fraud committed by him who obtained the award upon one who could not act for himself, or have accrued since. To hold otherwise would be to place awards of the land commission upon a plane higher than that accorded to the most solemn judgments of courts of law acting within unquestioned jurisdiction. There is nothing in the judicial history of these Islands which would warrant us in according such a position to the judgments of the land commission. It does not militate against the view here taken that the land commission had jurisdiction to consider equitable as well as legal claims, for the circumstances of this ease, which must be admitted to be exceptional, show that notwithstanding the broad powers of the land commission, a case may.have occurred where a claim failed of presentation not merely without fault on the part of the one who, being incapable of acting on his own behalf, had the right to have it presented for him, but through the fraud of the one upon whom the law imposed the duty of presenting it on the other’s behalf who successfully asserted it in his own name.
If the decree in Kalakaua v. Pai and Armstrong was right it ought to be enforced. If the decision in the Lewers & Cooke
Being of the opinion that this court was wrong in- the conclusion reached in the Lewers & Cooke case, and that the decree of 1858 was not “erroneous in a fundamental principle,” and, for the reasons stated in the former opinion in the case at bar, should not-be reopened, we should feel inclined to depart from the ruling made in the Lewers & Cooke case were we not bound by it because of its having been affirmed by the United States supreme court.
Counsel for the appellants contend that under the decree in the Lewers & Cooke case the whole matter is res judicata. But as the appellee was not a party to that case and is not a privy of Lewers & Cooke, Limited, the ground is untenable. Counsel for the appellee urge the doctrine of “the law of the case,” invoking the former decision in the case at bar. Both sides seem to assume that the decisions in the two cases are in conflict. The Lewers & Cooke case, however, was decided on a point which was not touched upon in the decision on the demurrer in the present case, and although it was held in that case that the decree of 1858 ought not to be enforced the decision rested upon ground which was not inconsistent with that taken in the prior decision in the case at bar. The rule of the law of the case, therefore, does not as counsel have supposed, compel the choice of following one of two conflicting decisions. We think the application of that rule is not involved here. The point upon which this case now hinges was adjudicated in the case in which the appellee was not a party, but was not considered when this case was last before this court. In the Lewers & Cooke case the supreme court of the United States held that the decree made in Kalakaua v. Pai and Armstrong was erroneous and that the judgment, of the land commission awarding the title to the land in dispute to Kinimaka was conclusive and binding against Kalakaua and those who claim through and
The decree appealed from is, accordingly, reversed, and a decree will be entered in this court dismissing the bill of complaint.
Concurrence in Part
CONCURRING IN PART AND DISSENTING IN PART.
The material facts in this case are precisely the same as those before this court and before the supreme court of the United States in the Lewers & Cooke case reported in 18 Haw. 625, 19 Haw. 47 and 222 U. S. 285. The only fact contended by the appellee to be before this court in the case at bar and not to have been before the supreme court of the United States in the Lewers & Goohe case is that Kinimaka was the guardian of Kalakaua at the time that the claim for the land was presented to the Land Commission. In addition to the fact noted in the majority opinion that the guardianship was found as a fact by the court of land registration, that that finding was before this court in the Lewers & Goohe case and that the decree in that case was affirmed on appeal, the answer to the contention is that this court deemed the fact of the alleged fraud, and therefore of the guardianship immaterial and that the supreme court of the United States considered the case as though the fact of the guardianship was properly before it. “It is immaterial whether Kinimaka had received the land from Liliha or from Kaniu, and whether, if from Kaniu, he was guilty of actual fraud in procuring his land commission award or whether he acted under the honest belief that the disapproval of Kaniu’s will by the King and the verbal giving of the lands to him was conclusive.” 18 Haw. 625, 638, 639. “So it is said that Kinimaka was the natural guardian of Kalakaua, we presume on the evidence that Kaniu assented to a suggestion that she had better leave her property in Kinimaka’s hands till Kalakaua came of age. But it would be going rather far to apply the refined rules of the English chancery concerning fiduciary duties to the relations between two Sandwich Islanders in 1846, on the strength of such a fact.” 222 U. S. 285, 294. To grant the relief prayed for in this suit would be to attempt to disregard and render ineffectual the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the Lewers & Cooke
This sufficiently disposes of the case, but since the majority has expressed its view to the effect that the decisions of this court and of the supreme court of the United States are incorrect, I feel impelled to state, briefly, my views on the subject.
In my opinion the decisions referred to were correct in regarding the equity decree of 1858 as an attack upon the land commission award to Kinimaka and in declining to countenance the attack. In form, perhaps, it was not; but in substance and in effect, it was. The appellee1 invokes the general rule relating to the jurisdiction in equity concerning judgments obtained by fraud. “The suit in chancery does not draw in question the judgment and proceedings at law or claim a right to revise them. It sets up an equity independent of the judgment which admits the validity of that judgment, but suggests reasons why the party who has obtained it ought not to avail himself of it. It proposes to try a question entirely new, which has not been and could not be litigated at law.” Parker v. Circuit Court, 12 Wheat. 562, 564; and similar cases. That rule, however, can have no application to the case at bar or the suit in equity of 1858. If applied, it violates the spirit of the gift of Kamehameha III when he relinquished to the people his title to a large part of the royal domain and the spirit and the letter of the laws enacted to effectuate that gift. I cannot do better at this point than to quote from a familiar statement of the history of land titles in Hawaii. “There is a time in the history of every original nation not formed by colonization, when as it emerges from barbarism into civilization, titles to land may be said to have a beginning by positive institution of the people of such nation. Previous to the advent of Christianity to this country, in the early part of this century, Kamehameha
The establishment of the Land Commission was a part of the scheme for the accomplishment of Kamehameha’s purpose to relinquish his claims to the land and to vest titles in individuals. It was given power to hear and,finally determine, subject only to appeal to the supreme court, all claims to land and to make awards therefor. In its creation it was recognized hy the King and all others concerned that “the Hawaiian rulers have learned by experience, that regard must be had to the immutable law of property, in things real, as lands, and in things personal, as chattels; that the well being of their country must essentially
In view of the uncertain tenures of land prior to the creation of the Land Commission, the King’s gift and its terms, the provisions of the law intended for its accomplishment and the subsequent judicial declarations concerning the finality of the determinations of the Land Commission, the equitable jurisdiction over the fruits of a judgment obtained by fraud cannot be successfully invoked. Relief was sought in 1858 and is sought now, not by reason of any facts occurring after the date of the award but by reason of facts all of which existed prior to the. proceedings before the Land Commission. There was no new question before the equity court in 1858, and there is none now, which could not have been litigated before the Land Commission. If Kinimaka in a spirit of fairness, at the time of the presentation of his own claim to the land, whether that claim was through Liliha or through Kaniu, made known to the Commission the attempted devise by Kaniu to Kalakaua or if the latter fact otherwise appeared in evidence at the hearing (the failure of the Commission to record evidence to sustain an award does not vitiate it, Ealalcaua v. Keaweamahi, supra), it was within the province of the Commission (a) to refuse to award the land to Kinimaka, or (b) to award it to Kinimaka in trust for Kalakaua, or (c) to award it to Kalakaua, or (d) to award it to Kinimaka. If it decided, whether correctly or incorreétly, either that Liliha had a stronger claim than Kaniu or that Liliha’s claim was unfounded and that the King’s disapproval of Kanin’s oral will was effective and his own subsequent gift to Kinimaka good, it was beyond the power of the equity court, directly or indirectly, to set aside that decision or render it nugatory. If, on the other hand, the fact of Kaniu’s attempted devise to Kalakaua was not made known to the Commission, it was, as to.Kalakaua, an instance of a minor bound by the failure of his guardian to present his
The Hawaiian cases referred to in the opinion in the Lowers & Cooke case to my mind support and lead irresistibly to the conclusion there reached, that the decree of 1858 was an indirect attack on the award, that the award of the Land Commission is a final adjudication of all claims to the land awarded existing prior to December 10, 1845, that such awards are, with the exceptions mentioned in Thurston v. Bishop, supra, the foundation of all titles to land in these Islands and conclusive against every form of attack save the appeal provided by law, — a tradition “fortified by logic and good sense.” 222 U. S. 285, 294, 295. In 18 Haw. 625, 638, it was correctly said that if the decree of 1858 shall be now enforced, “it will be the first time in the judicial history of Hawaii that a Land Commission award shall have been set aside upon any pretext whatever.” Announcement should not now be made judicially that an awardee may, in spite of the award, possibly have been the holder of the bare legal title in trust for another and that he or his successors may be decreed in equity to convey to that other.