NO. SCWC-24-0000533 (CONSOLIDATED WITH SCWC-24-0000534, SCWC-24-0000535, SCWC-24-0000536)

STATE OF HAWAI‘I, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. DANIELLE K. KAHELE, also known as DANIELLE K. KANEAO and HEATHER TULL, also known as HEATHER O. TULL, and HEATHER OWEN TULL, Respondents/Defendants-Appellees, and ARTHUR LEE, dba ALL IN 1 BONDING, Petitioner/Real Party In Interest- Appellant.

Supreme Court Courtroom
Ali‘iōlani Hale, 2nd Floor
417 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

The oral argument will also be livestreamed for public viewing via the Judiciary’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/hawaiicourts and ‘Ōlelo at olelo.org/tv-schedule/, subject to ‘Ōlelo’s programming availability.

Attorney for Petitioner/Real Party In Interest-Appellant ARTHUR LEE, dba ALL IN 1 BONDING:

     Benjamin E. Lowenthal of the Law Office of Benjamin E. Lowenthal, LLC

Attorneys for Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee STATE OF HAWAI‘I:

     Dean A. Soma and Chad K.L. Au, Deputy Attorneys General

NOTE: Order consolidating SCWC-24-0000533, SCWC-24-0000534, SCWC-24-0000535, and SCWC-24-0000536 for disposition, filed 06/16/26.

NOTE: Order assigning Circuit Judge Michelle L. Drewyer, due to a vacancy, filed 07/21/26.

NOTE: Order accepting Application for Writ of Certiorari, filed 08/11/26.

COURT: Devens, C.J., McKenna, Eddins, and Ginoza, JJ., and Circuit Judge Drewyer, assigned by reason of vacancy.

Brief Description:

All in 1 Bonding (All in 1) posted Heather Tull’s bail in four criminal cases.  When Tull failed to appear for her trial call, the Circuit Court of the First Circuit issued a bench warrant and ordered the bonds forfeited.  On May 28, 2024, All in 1 moved to set the forfeiture aside.  In an attached declaration, its attorney stated that the surety was actively searching for Tull.  It asked for a June 2024 hearing on the motion.

The circuit court set a hearing for July 3, then reset the hearing to July 12.  Two days before the hearing, Tull was arrested and in custody.  The court denied All in 1’s motion, reasoning that Tull was arrested “forty days after the search period expiration date of May 31, 2024.”

The Intermediate Court of Appeal (ICA) affirmed.  It held that “good cause” under Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 804-51 is not satisfied where the defendant was surrendered after the end of the thirty-day search period, absent a showing of a satisfactory reason for the defendant’s failure to appear when required.

This court accepted certiorari.  All in 1 asks whether the ICA erred “when it ruled that the surety’s timely filed motion to set aside the judgment and the apprehension of the defendant before the hearing on the motion did not matter because ‘good cause’ under HRS § 804-51 requires the defendant to be apprehended within thirty days from service of the forfeiture judgment?”