Circuit Judge Diana L. Warrington yesterday granted a lender's foreclosure motion against Edith K. Mar, whose family has occupied the property since 1920.

But Mar said she doesn't expect to lose the six-bedroom home, claiming the title she got when she borrowed money to buy the property was found recently to be no good.

An April report by Perfect Title Co., which traces land ownership based on 19th century Hawaii Kingdom law, concludes that Mar's title was invalid because the property was probated in 1894 by a court considered illegal.

All subsequent ownership transactions, including Mar's, were invalid, the company said.

"They're going to foreclose on a title that's not there," Mar said.

But her lenders and title insurer maintain that the title is good and dismiss Perfect Title's report as terribly flawed.

They particularly scoff at the company's contention that all Hawaii governments since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy were or are illegal.

Walter Beh II, who represents an investor holding the second mortgage on Mar's property, said a foreclosure auction should be held within three months. The mortgage totals about $140,000.

Finance Factors holds the first mortgage, totaling about $97,000.

Short of Mar reaching agreement with the lenders to repay the loans, the foreclosure will proceed as planned, Beh said. The judge's decision authorizes appointment of a commissioner to set up the auction.

Mar is one of more than half a dozen homeowners who are disputing their mortgages based on Perfect Title's reports. But her case is believed to be the furthest along and the first involving a foreclosure judgment.

Mar argues that her title insurer, Chicago Title, should pay her mortgages because title wasn't actually vested in her name - a defect that triggers the insurance policy.

But Neil Hulbert, an attorney representing Chicago Title, said no one else is claiming to own the property, therefore Mar hasn't suffered any damage to trigger the policy.

Before Warrington granted the foreclosure motion, Perfect Title President Donald A. Lewis, speaking on behalf of Mar, said she was a Hawaiian subject of the kingdom and didn't recognize state court as legitimate. She did not contest Beh's motion.

Lewis said Mar will be protected from losing her home because someone must disprove the title report - which he claims isn't possible - before the property can be sold. But Beh said because the report's validity wasn't raised during yesterday's hearing, it won't be an issue in the foreclosure.