A potential legal battle between Kamehameha Schools and the operators of a Big Island golf course who threatened to destroy their business out of spite appears to have been averted.
A potential legal battle between Kamehameha Schools and the operators of a Big Island golf course who threatened to destroy their business out of spite appears to have been averted.
Kamehameha Schools filed in May a request for an injunction against Kailua-Kona-based corporation Hawaiian International Sporting Club, operator of the Volcano Golf and Country Club, to bar it from any further use of that property.
However, late last week Kamehameha Schools — which leased the land to Hawaiian International Sporting Club in 1999 — withdrew that request, seemingly putting an end to a court case between the two entities.
A preliminary injunction hearing was scheduled to take place Wednesday in the 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu, but was canceled.
A representative of Kamehameha Schools said a statement about the case will be forthcoming later this week.
The Volcano Golf and Country Club permanently shut down abruptly in late May amid the COVID-19 pandemic, four years before the termination of the lease.
Kamehameha Schools’ request for an injunction against HISC accused the corporation’s president, Shigeyuki Tachibana, of repeatedly threatening to destroy the golf course rather than surrender the property to Kamehameha Schools upon the end of the lease. Tachibana also allegedly claimed ownership of the course was transferred to HISC’s investors earlier this year.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
