Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1457 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to transfer from the Supreme Court to the Circuit Court original jurisdiction over contested issues relating to elections, the state budget, the procurement code, the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from the Judiciary.

Your Committee finds that taking evidence is a time-consuming matter for the Judiciary that requires examination and cross-examination of witnesses, examination of documents, and rulings on evidentiary disputes under rules of evidence. As the Supreme Court is a multi-member court, and every decision must be made after consultation among the justices and voting by all members of the court, fact-finding by the Supreme Court is cumbersome, expensive, and unnecessary. The Supreme Court is, in the main, a court that decides and should decide disputed issues of law, not issues of fact. A fact-finding court must take evidence.

Your Committee has amended the measure by replacing its contents with the contents of H.B. No. 1004, H.D. 1. This amended companion bill to S.B. No. 1457 eliminates provisions that would have transferred original jurisdiction for election cases to the Circuit Court.

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. 1457, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1457, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.