## Facts

- Aloha Bed & Breakfast was a four-room bed-and-breakfast operated as a sole proprietorship out of the owner’s residence in Honolulu and served approximately 100–200 transient guests annually.
- Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford, a lesbian couple, sought lodging there for an upcoming trip.
- After initially indicating availability, the owner refused to rent to them upon learning they were a same-sex couple, citing religiously based objections.
- Cervelli and Bufford filed a discrimination complaint under Hawaiʻi’s public-accommodations law, HRS chapter 489, alleging denial of “full and equal enjoyment” based on sexual orientation.
- The Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission intervened after finding reasonable cause to believe unlawful discrimination occurred.
- The circuit court granted partial summary judgment for plaintiffs on liability under HRS § 489-3, denied the B&B’s cross-motion, and issued an injunction barring sexual-orientation discrimination.
- The B&B appealed, raising statutory and constitutional challenges.

## Issues

1. Whether the bed-and-breakfast qualified as a “place of public accommodation” under HRS chapter 489.
2. Whether an owner-occupied small-dwelling exemption found in Hawaiʻi’s housing discrimination statute (HRS chapter 515) limited or exempted the bed-and-breakfast from HRS chapter 489.
3. Whether applying HRS § 489-3 to require renting to a same-sex couple violated the owner’s asserted rights to privacy, intimate association, and free exercise of religion under federal or state constitutional law.

## Decision

- The Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s partial summary judgment and injunction.
- The court held the bed-and-breakfast was a “place of public accommodation” because it offered lodging to transient guests from the general public as a business.
- The court held the chapter 515 owner-occupied exemption did not apply to, and did not limit, the separate public-accommodations requirements in chapter 489.
- The court rejected constitutional defenses, concluding enforcement of HRS § 489-3 in this context did not violate privacy, intimate association, or free exercise rights.

## Legal Principles

- A business that offers lodging to transient guests from the general public may qualify as a “place of public accommodation” even if operated within an owner’s residence.
- Statutory exemptions applicable to housing or real-estate transactions do not apply to public-accommodations regulation absent clear legislative incorporation.
- Operating a public-facing commercial enterprise from one’s home reduces reliance on residential privacy as a basis to avoid generally applicable anti-discrimination duties governing the business’s customer service.
- Customer relationships in a lodging business open to the public are commercial, not the type of intimate association protected from neutral, generally applicable regulation.
- Religious motivation for refusing service does not excuse noncompliance with a neutral public-accommodations law that prohibits discrimination on enumerated grounds, including sexual orientation.

## Conclusion

The court upheld liability and injunctive relief under Hawaiʻi’s public-accommodations statute, ruling that a home-based bed-and-breakfast open to the public must provide lodging without sexual-orientation discrimination and may not avoid compliance through housing-statute exemptions or asserted privacy, association, or religious-liberty defenses.


Cervelli v. Aloha Bed & Breakfast, 142 Haw. 177, 415 P.3d 919 (Haw. Ct. App. 2018)