A settlement has been reached in the case of a house built on the wrong lot in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
A court document filed on May 9 in the Kona Circuit Court civil case specifies that all parties in the case stipulate dismissal of all claims with prejudice, meaning that no one can refile claims in the case.
The dismissal — which was agreed to by James DiPascuale, the Honolulu attorney representing Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds; Peter Olson, the Kona attorney representing Keaau Development Partnership LLC; Gene Lau, the Honolulu attorney representing Patrick John Lawrence Jr., dba PJ’s Construction; and Hawaii County Deputy Corporation Counsel Sherilyn Tavares — was approved and ordered by Kona Circuit Judge Kimberly Tsuchiya.
“There was a confidentiality agreement entered into, so other than basically saying the matter was resolved, we’re not really able to go any further than that,” DiPascuale told the Tribune-Herald on Wednesday.
Olson also declined to comment other than “all claims have been dismissed.”
The case, which garnered national attention, centered around a house mistakenly built by PJ’s Construction on an 8th Avenue lot owned by Reynolds, a 49-year-old Concord, Calif., woman, adjacent to the lot owned by KDP where the house was supposed to be built.
Reynolds purchased her one-acre lot in a 2018 county tax auction for $22,500.
She was in California during the pandemic waiting for the right time to use the lot when she got a call in 2023 from a real estate broker who informed her he sold the house on her property.
KDP hired PJ’s Construction to build about a dozen homes on the properties the developer bought in the subdivision, but the company built one on Reynolds’ lot.
After the construction snafu came to light, Reynolds, the construction company, the architect and others were sued by the developer.
The civil litigation came after Reynolds rejected KDP’s offer of the adjacent lot in a proposed land swap and made a counter-offer the developer found unacceptable.
KDP sought general damages of $307,318.57 and special damages between $200,000 and $300,000 for speculative loss profits had the home been sold.
Reynolds sought more than $1.3 million in damages, according to both the developer and Hawaii County.
Both KDP and PJ’s testified during a three-day hearing in April 2024 before since-retired Third Circuit Chief Judge Robert Kim that no survey of the land was done prior to the construction of the three-bedroom house KDP valued at $500,000.
Kim granted Reynolds’ motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order on June 24, 2024, ruling Reynolds was likely to prevail at trial “on the merits as she is an innocent victim in this case.”
Kim denied Reynolds’ request seeking to restore her one-acre lot to its original, pre-development condition, deeming it “impossible to return the real property to its original state.” He ordered the house be demolished by another contractor at PJ’s Construction’s expense.
Tsuchiya selected a proposal by Sanborn General Contracting Inc. of Hilo to remove the house.
Both KDP and PJ’s appealed Kim’s order to the state Intermediate Court of Appeals. Those cases have also been dismissed.
The house, a package home sold by HPM Building Supply, was not demolished and remains on the lot.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
