STAND. COM. REP. NO. 602

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 917

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Government Operations and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 917 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAND,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Land Court to:

(1) Accept valid government issued identification as evidence to prove full name; and

(2) Give full faith and credit to public acts, judgments, and orders of other states that recognize name changes by usage or other method.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary and two individuals.

Your Committees find that the Land Court of the State of Hawaii has exclusive original jurisdiction over all applications for the registration of title to land easements or rights in land held and possessed in fee simple within the State, with power to hear and determine all questions arising upon the applications. In order to transfer property subject to Land Court jurisdiction, existing law requires that every deed or other voluntary instrument presented for recording contains the full name of the grantee and a statement that the grantee is married or unmarried, and if married, the statement must include the full name of the spouse. Issues have arisen within the Land Court in determining a married individual's name when the individual's marriage certificate is from out-of-state, and unlike Hawaii marriage licenses, does not list the intended married names of both spouses. This measure clarifies what shall be accepted as valid identification by the Land Court.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that a valid government-issued photographic identification issued by the United States, this State, or another state shall be adequate proof of identify for the purposes of the land court of the State of Hawaii; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Government Operations and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 917, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 917, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Government Operations and Water and Land,

________________________________ KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair

________________________________ LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair