Stender disputes immunity
claimed by estate fact-finder

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

Bishop Estate trustee Oswald Stender has filed objections to court-appointed fact-finder Patrick Yim's claim of "absolute judicial immunity" from deposition or discovery requests.

"Trustee Stender believes the fact-finder is not completely immune from deposition or from requests for documents," say documents filed in Circuit Court yesterday. "But this court should issue a comprehensive protective order protecting the identities and confidences of the witnesses who provided information to the fact-finder."

No prior case law "holds, or even hints, that (fact-finders) cannot be questioned about the work or services they performed for the court," Stender's filing says.

"No one is seeking to hold the fact-finder civilly liable for damages related to his report," it adds, but this should not bar the fact-finder from being questioned within guidelines of professional courtesy and civility.

Court documents say Yim is scheduled for a deposition Monday and next Tuesday.

This latest legal sparring is over trustee Lokelani Lindsey's discovery request. She has asked for copies of fact-finder Yim's records, notes, logs and other materials that went into formulating his report on Kamehameha Schools operations.

Lindsey also has moved to oppose the request for a court order that would protect the identities of witnesses who provided information to Yim. Yesterday, she was joined in that motion by fellow majority trustee Richard "Dickie" Wong.

Hearing on the motions are scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 25.

Estate sues lawyers over confidentiality Star-Bulletin Bishop Estate has filed suit in Circuit Court, alleging its lawyers failed to keep a settlement confidential in a suit brought by a former employee. William Rosehill, a Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate land manager on the Big Island, was terminated July 10, 1992. Rosehill filed suit Feb. 22, 1993. The lawsuit says an attorney with Watanabe Ing & Kawashima failed to guard the confidentiality of a settlement with Rosehill by attaching it to a court document not under seal. In November 1996, a reporter with the Hilo Tribune Herald disclosed that Bishop Estate agreed to pay Rosehill $240,000 to settle the lawsuit.

---

Bishop Estate Archive