State to Settle Historic Litigation over Native Hawaiian Homesteads for $328 Million
“State lawyers are prepared to settle a landmark class-action lawsuit filed more than 20 years ago by Native Hawaiians waiting for homestead land leases. Attorneys representing the state have asked the Legislature to fund a $328 million settlement in the case with roughly 2,700 plaintiffs. The,” reports Andrew Gomes in Star Advertiser.
“The request follows 15 days of nearly back-to-back settlement conferences with a state Circuit Court judge between March 24 and April 13 in the case known as Kalima v. State of Hawaii. Lead plaintiff Leona Kalima and two other named plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 1999, arguing that the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, overseer.”
