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HAWAII
Bank of Hawaii will refund contested fee

About 30,000 customers who paid Bank of Hawaii a document preparation fee when their residential first mortgages were paid off soon will get refunds that could be as much as double the amount they originally paid.

Bank of Hawaii, which recently agreed to the refunds to settle a consumer class-action lawsuit, will pay a total amount ranging from $1.7 million to $2.45 million to the customers and for consumer education in Hawaii, depending on the number of refunds requested. The complaint was filed last year by Michael J. McPherson, Danielle C. McPherson, Jacqueline Lee Kaohi, Brent White, Cheryl Lenart and Dee Ann Koanui.

In its second-quarter earnings report last month, Bank of Hawaii disclosed that it was taking a $2.2 million charge to settle litigation. Bank of Hawaii stopped charging the fee in April 2003.

The amount of the fee paid by customers was typically $35, $50 or $100, depending on how long ago the mortgage was paid off. If the court approves the settlement, customers who paid the fee to Bank of Hawaii between January 1988 and April 2003 will be entitled to a refund as part of the settlement process. The court will set the amount of the refund. Instructions for making refund requests will be sent to eligible customers in early 2005.

Bank of Hawaii declined to comment.

Nut growers sue to block merger

ML Macadamia Orchards LP and three other Big Island growers sued in Hilo Circuit Court yesterday asking that the merger of the state's two largest macadamia nut processors be stopped.

ML Macadamia has been outspoken in its opposition to the parent of Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., the top nut processor in Hawaii, buying MacFarms of Hawaii LLC, the state's No. 2 processor and grower. ML Macadamia, the largest grower in Hawaii, and the other plaintiffs said that allowing the acquisition to go through would give Mauna Loa a nearly complete monopoly over the state's fourth-largest crop.

ML Macadamia and the other growers plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction next week, according to James Case, senior partner at law firm Carlsmith Ball and a director of ML Macadamia's general partner, ML Resources Inc.

The Mauna Loa-MacFarms transaction is due to close Sept. 10 and Case said ML Macadamia wanted to get an injunction before that occurs. ML Macadamia was joined in the suit by smaller growers Whitney Koffman, Darrell Crisp and Troy Keolanui.

Mauna Loa has been meeting with the state Attorney General's Office over antitrust concerns and has offered to sell the MacFarms processing plant it would acquire in the deal.

ML Macadamia and the other growers said in the complaint that allowing the acquisition to go forward would give Mauna Loa control of 66 percent of the total supply of unprocessed nuts on the Big Island and 76 percent of the processing of unprocessed macadamia nuts on the Big Island.

Hawaiian Air pays $1.6M bonus

Hawaiian Airlines distributed a $1.6 million profit-sharing bonus to its employees yesterday that represented the final payment under a program agreed to during labor negotiations in early 2003.

The payment brings the total amount in bonuses to $8.6 million over the past five quarters. Under the agreement, 10 percent of the company's operating profits in excess of its quarterly targets were paid as quarterly bonuses. Hawaiian said high fuel and other costs cut into the most recent bonus.

Trustee Joshua Gotbaum, who is overseeing the airline through Chapter 11 reorganization, said "everyone agrees that sharing profits is the right thing to do" and encouraged the employees to discuss profit sharing during the next round of negotiations on pay and benefits.