Posted 02/01/2012
Court Denies Motion for Injunction in Ka`anapali Catamaran Case
On January 31, U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi denied a motion by Ka`anapali Tours, LLC (KTL) for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to allow the brand new Queen’s Treasure catamaran to operate pending a decision on the company’s effort to get a permanent injunction.
KTL had ordered Queen’s Treasure custom built more than a year ago, relying on terms of a DLNR-Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) permit that had been issued by a someone (a low-level planner) without the authority to do so. The unique permit appeared to allow KTL to operate either a monohull vessel or a catamaran. This, in effect, would have allowed KTL to bypass DOBOR’s waiting list for a Ka`anapali catamaran permit.
Alerted by a competing catamaran operator that KTL’s permit defied DOBOR’s rules and management scheme for Ka`anapali, DOBOR attempted last summer to cancel the permit and prohibit KTL from using Queen’s Treasure.
KTL sought a jury trial for a permanent injunction preventing DLNR and DOBOR from hampering the operation of Queen’s Treasure. It also sought a preliminary injunction.
In her order denying the preliminary injunction, Kobayashi concluded that DOBOR was not required to honor erroneous terms of an erroneously issued permit.
“Instead, DLNR/DOBOR had the authority to suspend or revoke the permit. To the extent that the terms of the permit were inconsistent with the procedures under the applicable law, plaintiff was on notice that it could not rely on those inconsistent terms as superceding the applicable statutes or regulations. …
“The Court therefore finds that plaintiff has not shown that it had a legitimate claim of entitlement to substitute/add the Queen’s Treasure to the inventory of vessels on the permit. Thus, plaintiff has not established a likelihood of success on the merits of its due process claim,” she wrote.
Under an agreement with the DLNR, Queen’s Treasure had been allowed to operate pending Kobayashi’s decision.
Leave a Reply