Daughter blocks sale of Ho house in Lanikai

A legal dispute between a daughter of the late Hawaiian entertainment icon Don Ho and her father's trust over the family home in Lanikai is on hold.

Dondi Ho-Costa is blocking the sale of the home by the trust because she said her father promised the home to her and her five siblings from Ho's first marriage. The trust is trying to sell the home to pay off more than $1 million still owed on it.

The beneficiaries of the trust include Ho's first six children, plus four others, his second wife and the mother of some of the other children.

The trust agreed to postpone a hearing in probate court scheduled for yesterday and indicated that it will withdraw its request to remove the block on the sale of the property.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM The late Don Ho's house at 1018 Mokulua Drive in Lanikai, seen here from the beach, is the object of a legal struggle.

A Lanikai property that was the family home for entertainer Don Ho and his first wife is at the center of a legal dispute, but a court case on the fight was postponed yesterday.

One of Ho's daughters from his first marriage filed to block the home sale by the trust that the late singer established for the benefit of all of his children, his second wife and another woman who is the mother of some of his children. A probate court hearing on the matter was postponed yesterday.

The attorneys for Dondi Ho-Costa and for the Don Ho Revocable Living Trust did not respond to requests seeking comment yesterday.

According to court documents filed by the trust attorneys, the home at 1018 Mokulua Drive is in escrow, and the sale was supposed to close on or about Jan. 31. But Ho-Costa filed papers with the state Bureau of Conveyances two days before, blocking the sale. She also filed papers asking the court to enforce a verbal agreement she says her father had made with her mother before her mother died in 1999.

Judge Colleen Hirai was scheduled yesterday to hear Ho-Costa's request to enforce the verbal agreement and the trust's request to remove the block on the sale.

The trust had asked for a prompt hearing date because the closing had been extended to yesterday, and the trust said the buyer has threatened legal action if the sale does not go through.

But in papers filed Wednesday, the trust agreed to postpone the hearing and indicated that it will withdraw its request to remove the block on the sale.

According to court documents filed by Ho-Costa, one of six children of the entertainer and his first wife, Melvamay, Ho made a verbal agreement to put the property in trust for her and her children prior to her death on June 8, 1999. Melva Ho had been ill and had inquired about divorcing her husband to secure an inheritance for her children.

By then Don and Melva Ho had been living apart for several years, according to Ho-Costa.

Still, Don Ho opposed a divorce and instead wanted to refinance the mortgage on the property he and his wife bought in 1971 to finance some of his businesses, Ho-Costa said in court documents.

Melva signed a deed transferring sole ownership of the home to her husband with the understanding that Ho would transfer title to a trust for her and her children after he secured the refinancing, according to Ho-Costa. Melva Ho died with the property still under the sole ownership of her husband.

Don Ho later did transfer title of the home to a trust. But at the time of his death, the beneficiaries included his and Melva's six children; four other children; his second wife, Haumea Hebenstreit; and Elizabeth Guevara, whom Ho-Costa identifies in court papers as her father's longtime friend.

According to papers filed by the trust, Ho had expressed his desire to sell the Lanikai property, and several months before he died on April 14, put it up for sale. The trust says more than $1 million is owed for the property, and the sale is intended to pay off that debt.

According to the latest city property tax records, the assessed value of the 17,267-square-foot property is $4,542,400, and of the two-story structure, $588,700.