Mirikitani
family feud over
dad’s estate

City Councilman Andy says
brother Richard had him
totally disinherited

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

In a family feud, City Councilman Andy Mirikitani charges his brother conspired to use their father in a scheme to disinherit him.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday in Circuit Court, Mirikitani alleges his brother and others deceived and tricked their father into revising his estate plan in 1997 to "totally disinherit Andy," said his attorney Edward Jaffe.

The suit names younger brother Richard Mirikitani, a Castle & Cooke executive; his brother's wife, Susan; her company, the Bayer Estate LLC, which plans to operate a wedding chapel on historic property in Aina Haina owned by the family; and the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

The suit also seeks to put a stop to the controversial "wedding mill" at the Bayer Estate by removing it from the state's Register of Historic Places. In the 15-count lawsuit, Mirikitani alleged that brother Richard and his wife conspired to wrongfully convert his 17-percent interest in the Bayer Estate.

In a trust agreement, the Mirikitanis' father before his death had transferred equal shares of real estate properties to his three sons, including the Bayer Estate at 5329 Kalanianaole Highway. Dr. Carl M. Mirikitani died last October.

Richard and Susan Mirikitani had the estate placed on the state's Register of Historic Places and obtained a conditional use permit to operate a wedding facility on the beachfront property.

Andy Mirikitani has publicly opposed commercial wedding operations in residential areas because of negative effects on the surrounding neighborhood and has asked the city to nullify the permit. He has maintained he was never consulted about their business plans and never gave his approval.

Canceling the historic designation would automatically void the conditional use permit and put an end to inappropriate use of the residential property for commercial uses, Jaffe said.

In a lawsuit filed against the councilman in May, Richard Mirikitani accused his brother of using their nephew's trust to finance more than $200,000 in campaign loans that were never repaid.

Andy Mirikitani has said he never used trust funds to bolster his campaign. According to his lawsuit, his father had established a line of credit with First Hawaiian Bank to fund a $175,000 loan to the campaign committee, secured by a first mortgage on the family home.

Andy Mirikitani alleged that brother Richard led their father to believe that the home would be lost to foreclosure because the loan wasn't being repaid, when in fact Richard was withholding payments from the bank.