Honda Ex Rel. Honda v. Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System

Opinion of the Court by

ACOBA, J.

We hold that Appellee-Appellant Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii (the ERS Board) has a fiduciary duty to provide its members, including Appellant-Appellee Katsumi Honda (Katsumi), deceased, by Helen Honda (Helen), Petitioner, with clear, understandable information concerning retirement benefits. Its failure to do so in this case may have resulted in Katsumi’s unilateral mistake with respect to his chosen mode of retirement and, additionally, constituted negligent misrepresentation. In that connection, the ERS Board’s…