Waialeale Boat Tours, which owes over $100,000 in back rent to the state, will continue to lease state land on the Wailua River, at least for now, after Circuit Court Judge George Masuoka dismissed the state’s eviction claim yesterday. Masuoka
Waialeale Boat Tours, which owes over $100,000 in back rent to the state, will continue to lease state land on the Wailua River, at least for now, after Circuit Court Judge George Masuoka dismissed the state’s eviction claim yesterday.
Masuoka dismissed the motion for summary judgment in front of a packed courtroom of Waialeale supporters, including many Hawaiian-sovereignty activists, because the state failed to serve Waialeale Boat Tours properly, said William J. Wynhoff, deputy attorney general in the state land transportation division.
William K. “Sonny” Waialeale, owner of Waialeale Boat Tours, did not return phone calls seeking comment. The business phone listed in the phone book has been disconnected.
“It was discouraging,” Wynhoff said yesterday. “It was a frustrating day.”
Wynhoff said he was surprised when the decision was made, but he understood that the state had made a mistake. He will bring the charges back as soon as possible.
Wynhoff said that he believed the state had done enough to serve the eviction papers to the corporation, since Waialeale had filed a counterclaim in the lawsuit.
But Masuoka said that since there was no written documentation that the corporation, Waialeale Boat Tours, had ever received the motion, the case was dismissed until the corporation was served, Wynhoff added.
“It’s time to go back to the drawing board,” Wynhoff said, meaning the boat-tour company can remain in their location in the Wailua marina complex until the state serves the motion to the company, refiles the motion, and receives a court date. He expects it could take 45 to 90 days before returning to court to get a decision.
Waialeale was also told to find a lawyer.
While Waialeale represented his company in court yesterday, Masuoka said according to state law, a corporation must be represented by a lawyer, and that Waialeale would need a lawyer when he returned to court.
Waialeale has claimed that he refuses to recognize the state’s lease, and that as a Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, he has a birthright to the land.
“My inherent right on land comes from the ‘identity’ of the ‘loi’ and the right to be part of a government, (and) is vested in the reserved right of the minerals and metallic mines on the Royal Patent,” Waialeale wrote in a April 22 letter to Wynhoff. “The Wailua River Valley, under executive order, does not and cannot extinguish my rights as a person in Polynesia, in the Hawaiian Islands,” Waialeale wrote.
In 1992, Waialeale signed a 16-year lease with the state for the operation of passenger boats along the Wailua River. Rent was $3,500 a month or 7 percent to 8 percent of annual gross receipts (in addition to mooring charges). Waialeale stopped regularly paying rent on Nov. 1, 2000.
In April, 2004, the state filed the lawsuit to evict Waialeale and recoup the back rent and damages.
Waialeale Boat Tours is one of only two companies that run daily tours on large motorized barges up and down the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto, a state park, and Waialeale docks his five boats at a state marina near the mouth of the river.
Tom Finnegan, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
