STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1288

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 700

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 700, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NUISANCE ABATEMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to strengthen the nuisance abatement law by, among other things:

(1) Clarifying that nuisance abatement suits must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence;

(2) Authorizing a court to issue protective orders for witnesses, including nondisclosure of a witness's identifying information, upon a showing of prior threats of violence or acts of violence made by any defendant in a nuisance abatement action;

(3) Specifying that any person who knowingly violates any order issued under the nuisance abatement law is subject to civil contempt in addition to punishment for criminal contempt of court under section 710-1077, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(4) Allowing injunctions against persons who maintain, aid, abet, or permit a nuisance from entering or residing in any place where the nuisance exists;

(5) Allowing the admission of evidence of the use or threat of violence to prove the existence of a nuisance; and

(6) Authorizing a court to suspend or revoke any business, professional, operational, or liquor license as a means of abating a nuisance.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Department of the Attorney General, and the Honolulu Police Department testified in support of this bill.

Your Committee finds that this measure would encourage neighborhood residents to report community nuisances such as drug activity by increasing the protections for witnesses in nuisance abatement actions, expanding the scope of injunctions to include persons associated with the nuisance, and providing law enforcement additional tools to abate a nuisance.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the title of the proposed Act;

(2) Expanding the provision on protective orders for witnesses to allow a court to issue these orders upon a showing of prior threats of violence or acts of violence by any person causing, maintaining, aiding, abetting, or permitting the nuisance;

(3) Removing the provision allowing a court to order the suspension or revocation of any liquor license to abate a nuisance; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 700, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 700, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair