The Land Court of the State of Hawaii (originally, the Court of Land Registration in the former U.S. Territory of Hawaii) has exclusive jurisdiction in the

Hawaii State Judiciary The Hawaii State Judiciary is the official name of the judicial system of Hawaii in the United States. Based in Honolulu, the Hawaii State Judiciary is a unified state court system that functions under the Chief Justice of the Hawaii State Supre ...

over cases involving registered land titles. The Land Court system of land registration was created by statute in 1903 as a

Torrens system Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence (termed " indefeasibility") of title of the person recorded on the regist ...

of land titles.Land Court Registration, by P. H. Mulholland; in ''An historic inventory of the physical, social and economic, and industrial resources of the Territory of Hawaii'', Territorial Planning Board, Honolulu, February 8, 1939, page 45. http://ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0inventory-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book-palmyra-1-011escapewin&a=d&d=D0.7.5&toc=0 Registration of land in Land Court is optional in Hawaii; non-registered land is conveyed in the "Regular System" instead, by recording deeds or other documents in the Bureau of Conveyances. Land in the Regular System may be lost by

adverse possession Adverse possession, sometimes colloquially described as "squatter's rights", is a legal principle in the Anglo-American common law under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property—usually land ( real property)—ma ...

(including squatter's rights, encroachments, and public trespassing) but land with registered title cannot be lost by adverse possession or other prescriptive means. "'No title, right or interest in, to or across registered land in derogation of that of the registered owner shall be acquired by prescription or adverse possession'. Thus is the possession of registered land protected. It cannot be interrupted by an adverse entry." In order to register a parcel of land in Land Court for the first time, an application with supporting documents proving good title is filed with the court. If successful, the Land Court issues an Original Certificate of Title, and issues Transfer Certificates of Title for all subsequent valid transfers. Notice of

liens A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

mortgages A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

, long-term

leases A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

, easements, servitudes or other

encumbrances An encumbrance is a third party's right to, interest in, or legal liability on property that does not prohibit the property's owner from transferring title (but may diminish its value). Encumbrances can be classified in several ways. They may be f ...

on the land is recorded on the Certificate of Title. The application is formally a legal case in a court of record, with required notice to all affected persons, and rights of appeal. Registered title to land is guaranteed by the State (and a special trust fund) to be solid ("good against the whole world") and is rarely challenged. Original applications to register new land parcels have become rare in Hawaii in recent years. It is possible, under a Hawaii statute, to take land out of the Land Court system into the Regular System. The Land Court staff certifies transfers of land title under the

; the court presides over disputed titles and rights to registered land. The Land Court is administered by a Registrar, an Assistant Registrar, and the Judge of the Land Court, who is a judge of the First Circuit (

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

) assigned to the Land Court. On Lānai Island, almost all land has been registered in Land Court, while very little of nearby Molokai Island is registered.

Palmyra Island Palmyra Atoll (), also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii a ...

was registered in Land Court in 1912, and land parcels there were subdivided and transferred in that system until 1959, when the rest of the

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...

, excluding Palmyra and the

Stewart Islands Sikaiana (formerly called the Stewart Islands) is a small atoll NE of Malaita in Solomon Islands in the south Pacific Ocean. It is almost in length and its lagoon, known as Te Moana, is totally enclosed by the coral reef. Its total land s ...

, became the State of Hawaii (

Hawaii Admission Act The Admission Act, formally An Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union () is a statute enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower which dissolved the Territory of Ha ...

). The Land Court became a state court and lost jurisdiction over Palmyra land because Palmyra was left out of the new state, as the remnant of the old federal Territory. (Since 1962, Palmyra land transfers are recorded by the court clerk of the

United States District Court for the District of Hawaii The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (in case citations, D. Haw.) is the principal trial court of the United States Federal Court System in the state of Hawaii. The court's territorial jurisdiction encompasses the sta ...

.Secretary of the Interior Order No. 2862, ''Palmyra Island Land Recordation'', March 19, 1962. (F. R. Doc. 62-2736.))

References

Hawaii state courts

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

1903 establishments in Hawaii Courts and tribunals established in 1903

See also

References