Judge turns down beachboy's request

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

A federal judge yesterday rejected a longtime Waikiki beachboy's request for a temporary restraining order after the city evicted him from a surfboard rental stand.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor also questioned whether the court had jurisdiction to rule on Gilbert Hisatake's claim that the city violated his constitutional right to due process by failing to give him 25-day notice before kicking him out Tuesday night.

The city says it terminated Hisatake's concession contract to operate on Kuhio Beach and gave him more than the required notice of three days before the eviction.

But Hisatake's lawyer says the city allowed the stand to operate on a month-to-month basis long after the concession agreement had expired, and so the arrangement should be considered a rental or lease agreement that requires eviction notice of 25 days.

The city says Hisatake owes more than $200,000 in back rent from a time two years ago; he later resumed full monthly payments, the city says.

Hisatake says he lost money as a result of city construction work and problems with the economy after 9/11. The city didn't fully compensate him for such losses as the contract allowed, and Hisatake is owed more than the $200,000 in disputed back rent, his attorney says.