Adelino Samuel Pacheco v. Daviann Tabion

Summary

The Hawaiʻi Intermediate Court of Appeals reverses a three-year injunction against harassment issued by the District Court of the Second Circuit. The court holds that the record lacked substantial evidence clearly and convincingly establishing either physical-harm-based harassment or course-of-conduct harassment under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 604-10.5.

Holdings

1. The district court clearly erred in finding that harassment was proved by clear and convincing evidence because the record did not contain substantial evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could have found it highly probable that either physical-harm-based harassment or course-of-conduct-based harassment occurred.
2. The appeal was construed as challenging the injunction order even though Tabion's notice of appeal did not identify or attach that order, because the opening brief challenged the injunction order rather than only the order denying reconsideration.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court clearly erred in finding by clear and convincing evidence that Tabion committed harassment under either Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 604-10.5(a)(1) or § 604-10.5(a)(2).
2. Whether substantial evidence supported the injunction against harassment when the allegations in the petition were not supported by the evidence presented at the hearing.

Disposition

reversed