Kahale v. City and County of Honolulu

Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by

ACOBA, J.,

with whom Circuit Judge CHAN joins.

I respectfully dissent to the majority’s decision to “overrule the holding of Salavea v. City & County of Honolulu, 55 Haw. 216, 221, 517 P.2d 51, 54-55 (1973)[.]”1 Majority opinion at 343, 90 P.3d at 235. The effect of the decision is to abrogate, without a showing of compelling justification, a thirty-year rule of law establishing that tort claims against a county are subject to the two-year statute of limitations set forth in Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 662-4 of the State Tort Liability Act (STLA). The…