Rodrigues v. State

*157OPINION OF THE COURT BY

KICHARDSON, C.J.

Iii a suit instituted under tbe State Tort Liability Act, judgment was rendered against the State of Hawaii and in favor of Mi*, and Mrs. Vincent E. Rodrigues, Jr., for damages caused to their home by surface waters overflowing a blocked drainage culvert.

Mr. and Mrs. Rodrigues are owners, as tenants by the entirety, of a houselot located in an improved subdivision *158at Olowalu, Maui. The subdivision is in a flood plain bounded on the north by sugar cane, fields which rise steeply to a mountainous region and on the south by a beach and the ocean. The…