Case Notes

• Publication year: 2015

CASE NOTES

Supreme Court

Criminal

State v. Harter, No. SCWC-12-0000962, December 10, 2014, (Pollack, J.). This case concerns a defendant's right in a criminal case to be represented by counsel free from divided loyalties. The court denied Appellant's request for new counsel at the trial. The Hawaii Supreme Court concluded the circuit court erred in not conducting a penetrating and comprehensive inquiry regarding the conflict of interest between Appellant and counsel. Therefore, the denial of Appellant's motion for withdrawal and substitution of counsel resulted in the derogation of Appellant's right to effective assistance of counsel.

State v. Monteil, No. SCWC-12-0000052, December 23, 2014, (Pollack, J.). Appellant was convicted of prostitution, appealing the conviction on the grounds of insufficient evidence. The Hawaii Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and clarified the prior-to-trial advisement required by State v. Lewis, 94 Hawaii 292, 297, 12 P.3d 1233, 1238 (2000).

Labor

Kawakami v. Kahala Hotel Investors, LLC, No. SCWC-11-0000594, December 22, 2014, (Wilson, J.). The issue in this case was whether a hotel or restaurant's use of service charges to pay its employees' "wages" without disclosing such practice to its customers constitutes an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of trade or commerce and/or an unfair method of competition. The Hawaii Supreme Court concluded that pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. § 481B-14, a hotel or restaurant that applies a service charge for food or beverage services must either distribute the service charge directly as tip income to the non-management employees who provided the food or beverage services or disclose to its customers that the service charges are not being distributed as tip income.

Appeal Pointers

Any point raised on appeal that requires consideration of the oral proceedings requires that the transcript be made part of the record. HRAP 10(b)(1). A transcript obtained during the course of the trial court proceeding for the personal use of the litigants is not made a part of the record. Therefore, a separate request for the transcript of a proceeding for the record on appeal must be filed with the clerk of the court. HRAP 10(b)(1). A file-marked copy of the request must be delivered or mailed to the reporter. HRAP 10(b)(1)(D). Unless the appellant is exempt from the transcript payment or deposit requirement or the reporter has waived such payment, the reporter need not commence...