Ozaki v. Association of Apartment Owners of Discovery Bay

ACOBA, Judge.

We hold that Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 663-31 (1993), Hawai'i’s modified comparative negligence statute, applies only to actions sounding wholly in negligence. Where negligence combines with other grounds of liability to cause injury to a plaintiff, we believe pure comparative negligence principles apply. In our view pure comparative negligence principles are best suited to accomplish a fair and equitable result by distributing a plaintiffs loss in proportion to the respective faults of the parties causing the loss. Under this approach, a plaintiffs negligence would not…