City can keep ridge drainage, judge rules
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer
A state judge yesterday refused to order the city to halt drainage water at Pacific Heights Road from flowing down the hillside above Nu'uanu homes where a 5-ton boulder slammed into a house in August 2002, killing a 26-year-old woman.
Patrick and Gail Onishi, whose daughter Dara was killed, and their neighbors asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the flow that they said increases the risk of dislodging boulders that would tumble down the hillside.
Dara Onishi
But Circuit Judge Eden Hifo agreed with city lawyers who argued that the neighbors' experts could not calculate the amount of the water flowing down from a drainage pipe.
Hifo said just one of the rock outcroppings that might dislodge to create boulders is in the flow of the water. She said the experts all agree that the potential of tumbling boulders is a hazard, but that even if the city halted the flow, the hazard would still exist.
"I think we're disappointed that the outcome still has in question our safety," said Patrick Onishi, a former city planning director.
Advertiser library photo • October 12, 2003
But city Deputy Corporation Counsel Derek Mayeshiro said they were pleased Hifo focused on what city lawyers believed was the issue — that "the current hazards will remain whether the water is diverted or not."
Patrick Onishi's daughter, Dara, died in 2002 when a 5-ton boulder crashed into their Nu'uanu home. The Onishis and their neighbors were denied an injunction to stop water diversion they believed increased the danger of falling rocks.
Dara Onishi's death underscored the growing concerns in recent years over falling rocks and mudslides that have plagued O'ahu's residents and roadways from Waimea Valley to Castle Junction to townhomes in Hawai'i Kai.
The Onishis have a pending Circuit Court lawsuit against the city and Pacific Heights landowners Hiroko and Vance Vaughan, alleging that the deadly boulder that crashed into the Onishi's Henry Street home early in the morning on Aug. 9, 2002 came from the Vaughans' property. The Vaughans' attorney, Steven Hisaka, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The civil trial is scheduled for November.
The request for the injunction was filed last year in a separate lawsuit filed against only the city. At issue is a pipe from a drainage ditch near the Vaughans' property along Pacific Heights Road. The pipe takes in the water from one end and releases it from an 8-inch opening.
In her ruling, Hifo suggested that one solution to the problem might be to demolish the outcroppings and construct a 10-foot high fence, which would cost a total of about $225,000.
Steven Kim, one of the lawyers for the Onishis and neighbors, said the issue would be who would pay the costs for the work on private property, but said he thinks his clients ought to consider it.
Mayeshiro said the matter would be a private dispute that would be resolved by the property owner and the Onishis and the neighbors.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
