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Oral Arguments before the Intermediate Court of Appeals

NO. 27912 Thursday, January 14, 2009 – 9:00 a.m.

CIVIL NO. 03-1-0305 DAVID GARNER, et al., Plaintiffs/Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. STATE OF HAWAI`I, et al., Defendants/Appellees/Cross-Appellants,

and

CIVIL NO. 05-1-0031 ALLAN KLITERNICK, et al., Plaintiffs/Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. PATRICIA HAMAMOTO, in her official capacity as Superintendent of Schools; et al., Defendants/Appellees/Cross-Appellants. (Class Action) .

Attorney(s) for Plaintiffs/Appellants/ Cross-Appellees
Paul Alston and Mei-Fei Kuo (Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing)
Eric G. Ferrer

Attorney(s) for Defendants/Appellees/Cross-Appellants
Honorable Mark J. Bennett, Attorney General and Dorothy Sellers, Deputy Attorney General

COURT: Watanabe, Foley and Leonard, JJ.

[ Listen to the entire audio recording in mp3 format ]

Brief description:

This is an interlocutory appeal and cross-appeal from seven orders of the First Circuit Court in two consolidated class action lawsuits in which substitute teachers alleged that they have been underpaid by the State Department of Education. Among other things, the circuit court ruled that the State is immune from direct claims based upon a violation of HRS § 302A-624(e), the State is not immune from the substitute teachers’ contract claims, the State is liable to the substitute teachers for some but not all of the back pay sought by the teachers, and the State is immune from pre-judgment interest in this case. The circuit court rejected a request to expand the certified classes to include part-time employees and denied a part-time employee’s motion to intervene. The Plaintiffs’ appeal seeks relief from the circuit court’s rulings on statutes of limitations, tolling, sovereign immunity, pre-judgment interest, class certification, and intervention. The State challenges the circuit court’s orders allowing a third amended complaint, finding a waiver of sovereign immunity, finding contractual obligations by the State, and finding that the State breached its contractual obligations.