Background
Friends of Māhāʻulepū sought review in the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court after proceedings in the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the Circuit Court of the Fifth Circuit. The Kauaʻi Planning Commission was the nominal appellee, and RP21 Coco Palms LLC and Coco Palms Hui LLC were intervenor appellees.
The order does not describe the underlying planning dispute, the lower courts’ rulings, or the substance of the certiorari questions. It identifies the related intermediate appellate docket as CAAP-25-0000025 and the circuit-court case as 5CCV-24-0000035.
The Court’s Holding
The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court exercised its discretion under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 602-59(a) and accepted Friends of Māhāʻulepū’s June 15, 2026 application for a writ of certiorari.
The court limited review under Hawaiʻi Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 40.1 to questions presented “(1)” and “(2)” in the application. It scheduled no merits disposition; instead, it stated that oral argument would be scheduled and the clerk would notify the parties.
Key Takeaways
- This is an order granting certiorari, not a decision on the merits.
- Review is confined to the first two questions presented in the certiorari application.
- The court will hear oral argument before deciding those issues.
Why It Matters
The order places the dispute before Hawaiʻi’s highest court but leaves the underlying legal and factual issues unresolved. The court’s express limitation means the eventual merits decision will address only the two specified certiorari questions.