United States Ninth Circuit

In an action by native Hawaiians contending that the trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a Hawaii state agency that administered a portion of a public trust's proceeds, breached the trust, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) alleged violations of state laws regarding the management and disposition of funds were not necessarily breaches, under federal law, of the trust itself; and 2) nothing in the trust's terms or purposes either requires the kind of comparative analysis plaintiffs proposed or suggested that Congress intended to prohibit expenditures whose benefits may extend beyond the trust's purposes.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/13/2009
• Decided 07/26/2010
• Published 07/26/2010

Judges

• Raymond Fisher

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Walter R. Schoettle, Robert G. Klein