## Facts

- Clinton and Joan Ashford petitioned the Hawaiʻi land court to register title to coastal parcels on Molokaʻi derived from two 1866 royal patents.
- The patents described the makai (seaward) boundaries as running “ma ke kai” (“along the sea”).
- The Ashfords offered expert survey evidence using federal coastal survey data to place “ma ke kai” at the mean high water (MHW) line.
- The State contended “ma ke kai” historically referred to the upper reach of ordinary high-tide wave wash, commonly indicated by the debris line and the start of vegetation, which it claimed lay farther inland.
- The State attempted to prove the customary meaning and location of “ma ke kai” through kamaʻāina (long-time local) witnesses testifying from reputation and customary understanding.
- The land court excluded much of the kamaʻāina reputation/custom testimony on hearsay and reputation grounds and fixed the seaward boundary at the MHW line.
- The State appealed.

## Issues

1. How should “ma ke kai” in mid-19th-century Hawaiian royal patents be construed for seaward boundary purposes: the MHW line or the upper reaches of wave wash marked by debris/vegetation?
2. Whether the land court erred by excluding kamaʻāina reputation and custom evidence offered to establish the customary shoreline boundary.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi reversed and remanded.
- “Ma ke kai” was held to mean the upper reaches of the wash of waves, usually evidenced by the vegetation edge or debris line, not the intersection of the shore with the plane of mean high water.
- The land court erred in relying on the MHW approach derived from federal survey computations as the controlling meaning of the royal patent language.
- The land court also erred in excluding kamaʻāina reputation evidence concerning customary shoreline boundaries.

## Legal Principles

- Hawaiian land grants from the Māhele-era must be interpreted in light of Hawaiian tradition, custom, practice, and usage existing when the grants were made.
- For royal patents using “ma ke kai,” the seaward boundary is located at the upper reaches of ordinary high-tide wave wash, typically shown by the debris line and the beginning of vegetation, rather than a computed mean high water line.
- In shoreline boundary disputes involving older Hawaiian grants, reputation and customary-understanding testimony from kamaʻāina witnesses is relevant and admissible to establish customary boundary meaning and location.

## Conclusion

The court rejected a technical mean-high-water survey standard for “ma ke kai” in royal patents, adopted a custom-based debris/vegetation-line shoreline boundary, and required land courts to admit kamaʻāina reputation evidence when determining such coastal boundaries.


In re Application of Ashford, 50 Haw. 314, 440 P.2d 76 (Haw. 1968)