13 Haw. 471 | Haw. | 1901
OPINION OP THE COURT BY
This ease was previously before the court on appeal from a decree dismissing the bill on demurrer. That decree was reversed. Wong Kwai v. Dominis, ante, 92. The case now comes up on appeal from a decree granting the relief prayed for after a hearing on the merits. The suit is one for specific performance of an alleged agreement to lease the Ahupuaa of Lumahai on the island of Kauai.
The main questions argued are whether a certain letter written by one Heleluhe to one Atan a was an offer to lease the land' and, if so, whether the offer was accepted, and whether the said Heleluhe and Akana were the duly authorized agents of the defendant and plaintiff respectively. The facts are in outline substantially as follows:
On October 15, Akana received from Heleluhe a letter of which the following is the translation on file:
“W. O. Akana, my regards to you. The offer of $5,000 for the land of Lumahai for the year is at an end; therefore the highest offer at this date, that is, is $2,200; and if there is no other higher offer than this, then the land will belong to this person.
Therefore, because of my aloha for Wong Kwai, I therefore think you should go and tell him if he has any thought (desire) for the land, then he must give one hundred dollars ($100) over this offer, that is, $2,300 for the year, then the door is closed, no person can further bid, and if Wong Kwai should agree then the lease will be made immediately for ten years, the lease beginning on the 1st day of January A. D. 1900 and the lease shall be made on the following Monday the 17th, paying at the same time the half of the yearly rental in advance, that is, $1,150. If Wong Kwai agrees, then I "will immediately draw up the document and sign it right away on the Monday morning, and acknowledge it on that day, then that trouble is at an end. You be quick; I am taking great consideration for his interest, because- he was the person who has been on the land for a long time. Your true friend,
(Signed) J. H. Heleluhe.
Washington Place-, Oct. 15th, 1898.”
Akana, on receiving this letter, sent for one Kan Wing Chew, who was a friend of the plaintiff and occasionally employed by him, and gave him the letter to take to the plaintiff. The plaintiff took it to another person to have it more carefully explained and then, on the same day that the letter was received, sent Kan Wing Chew back to Akana to tell him that he, the plaintiff, would take the lease at $2,300 and that he wanted to know when the lease would be ready. Akana and Kan Wing Chew then went to Heleluhe. Akana interpreted for Kan Wing Chew and told Heleluhe that the plaintiff would take the lease at $2,300 in accordance with the terms of the letter, and asked him when the plaintiff should come and Heleluhe said that he might come on Monday. On the Monday following, the
This is a case of unusual difficulty. The foregoing statement of the main facts does not adequately give the impressions that the testimony gives. The transactions in regard to which there is most question were between Chinese and Hawaiians and not only is there some difference of opinion among the witnesses as to just what was said on various occasions but it is unusually difficult to determine just what was intended or understood by what was said.
^Heleluhe’s authority, in our opinion, was not revoked by the appointment of Mr. Carter with similar powers. To constitute
It was unnecessary for Akana or Kan Wing Chew to have any formal appointment under the plaintiff. Assuming that Heleluhe’s letter contained an offer, an oral acceptance would be sufficient under the statute of frauds, and it would only be necessary for the plaintiff to send such an acceptance to Heleluhe in some proper way. Upon receiving the letter he' at once took it to a friend and had it carefully explained and then sent the one, Kan Wing Chew, who had brought it back to the one, Akana, who had sent it, with the message that he agreed to the terms and wished to know when the lease would be ready. These two, Akana and Kan Wing Chew, immediately went to Heleluhe who wrote the letter and delivered the message to him and the latter said that the lease would be ready the following Monday. This word was taken back to the plaintiff and he went to Heleluhe at the appointed time, Monday, and found the papers prepared. If the letter was an offer, we think that the plaintiff intended to accept it and sufficiently communicated his acceptance to Heleluhe.
The question of greatest difficulty is whether the letter should be construed as containing an offer. It is contended that it was a mere friendly letter of advice contemplating at most an offer from the plaintiff. There is undoubtedly much in the
The decree appealed from is affirmed.