Maui Coastal Land Trust (MCLT) and it’s take on Land Title

Something to think about:

There are no United States Land Patents here in Ko Hawaii Pae Aina.

There are Palapala Sila Nui and Palapala Hooko.

If there are no United States Land Patents then that must mean transfer of jurisdiction never occurred.

If transfer of jurisdiction never occurred then how can the United States enforce laws from their jurisdiction here in the original jurisdiction of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina?

The answer is: they cannot.

When I imagine a family, nice, mom and dad, 3 kids, a dog, work hard to provide the children with a nice comfortable life, a house, good school, food being held hostage by a couple of criminals at gunpoint (Bayonet Constitution) because these criminals want to now waltz in there and take everything that this hard working, loving family built for their children, for their future…that’s how picture the enormity and the graveness of what the United States did here in Ko Hawaii Pae Aina.

Pu`u O Hoku Ranch Donates Development Rights
According to the Maui Coastal Land Trust (MCLT) Executive Director Dale
Bonar last month, 2800 acres of East Molokai’s Puu O Hoku Ranch will remain forever in open space and agriculture thanks to a conservation easement agreement between MCLT and ranch owner Lavinia Currier.
Why? Several honorable reasons are possible, but legally, a landowner who
donates a conservation easement may be eligible for three federal tax benefits:

a charitable income tax deduction under [I.R.C.] ß170(h),

a charitable gift tax deduction under [I.R.C.] ß2522(d),
and an exclusion of up to 40 percent of the value of the land subject to
the  easement from the landowner’s estate for estate tax
purposes under [I.R.C.]
Why not just write land covenents in their own land deeds instead of MCLT?
Dale Bonar said this: “Per the covenants question, its and issue of legal standing.
When you put covenants on your lands it is only you (and your heirs) that
have legal standing to enforce them. So if you sell the lands and a future owner goes against the covenants, neither the county, nor the neighbors can enforce against those violations… The federal and state regulations which permit Land Trusts to operate give them the specific legal standing to be a third party enforcer of those covenants….So our job as the land trust is to ensure that those covenants are ALWAYS obeyed and enforced, regardless of who owns the land.”
What do you do when the lands are claimed by multiple parties, as in he case
of Paul Kauka Naki who obtained a Judgment from the Supreme Court of Hawaii?
Dale Bonar’s reply: The short answer is, we follow US law and title company
guarantees of title. As far as the US legal system is concerned, the titles to
Kainalu ranch are free and clear titles, and were insured by Title Guaranty.
We faced similar claims in our purchase of the Waihe`e Refuge lands here on
Maui. Both Akahi Nui and the Sovereignty folks Mahealani Ventura Oliver works with have claimed title, although we have, according to US legal titles, clear title to all but six small Kuleana parcels. (Incidentally, the claims by Akahi Nui for all of Hawaii are refuted by the other sovereignty folks who do not recognize his claim as rightful King of Hawaii).

Since the “Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands” has no legal standing
under US law, we cannot legally accept their claims, as we are incorporated under specific IRS tenents of US law and are required to follow US law. This does not mean we do not pay close attention to these issues, nor summarily reject any claim. Our policy on lands which have clouded titles (as determined by US Title Company research and US law) is to exclude them from any easements we do.

On lands such as Waihe`e which we own, if any potential claimant for the clouded parcels comes forward we work them to perfect their claim, and if they do have a real claim, work them to either bring them into the conservation efforts, trade them for another more useful piece of land outside the conservation area, or purchase their interest.
Dale B. Bonar, Ph.D. has offered to discuss such issues in the future, and I
presume he will exchance communications with any Molokai resident or land claiment on Molokai, so his contact info follows.
Maui Coastal Land Trust , POB 965
Wailuku, Maui, HI 96793 808-244-5263
808-357-7740 (cell)
dale@mauicoastallandtrust.org
http://www.mauicoastallandtrust.org