The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and three of four Native Hawaiian individuals agreed to settle their longstanding lawsuit with the state over ceded lands in the wake of the Legislature's passage today of a bill requiring Hawaii governors to get approval from lawmakers before selling ceded lands.

According to a release issued this afternoon by OHA and Attorney General Mark Bennett, the agency and all of the private plaintiffs except University of Hawaii professor Jonathan Osorio have reached an agreement with the state on "a set of steps that will resolve all or almost all of the lawsuit filed by OHA and the private plaintiffs in 1994. ..."

At issue is whether the state can sell ceded lands. OHA and the other plaintiffs argued that portions of the 1.2 million acres held in trust by the state, which comprises nearly all the land owned by the state, should not be sold off until claims by Native Hawaiians to those lands are resolved.

The U.S. Supreme Court on March 31 issued an opinion stating that the Hawaii Supreme Court had erred when it relied on Congress' Apology Resolution of 1993 as the primary basis for its decision in agreeing to a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands.

By settling, OHA and the three plaintiffs are receiving assurances that the state likely won't be selling any ceded lands, those lands held by the monarchy at the time of the 1893 overthrow. Senate Bill 1677 requires a two-thirds vote by both chambers of the Legislature before most of the ceded lands held by the state can be sold.

The current law involving exchanges of public lands for private lands will be retained — they will be allowed unless two-thirds of one Legislature of a simple majority of both houses.

The state, meanwhile, gets a dismissal of the lawsuit with all the plaintiffs except Osorio, who last week told supporters that he did not expect to be part of a settlement between the state, OHA and attorney Bill Meheula, who represents Osorio and the other three individuals.

"If Professor Jonathan Osorio chooses to proceed with this case, both OHA and the State believe it likely that his claims will also be dismissed without prejudice," the OHA release said. "In the event that that does not occur, however, and his claims go forward, OHA and the other private plaintiffs will not participate further in the lawsuit."

OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona and Bennett said in a joint statement: "There is no question that OHA and the State had significant differences with regard to this lawsuit. This settlement resolves those differences in a way we believe is beneficial to all citizens of Hawaii. We can now concentrate on working together on matters we all believe are crucially important to Hawaii, including the Akaka Bill. We look forward to doing so."

Neither Osorio nor Meheula were immediately available for comment.