[§634J-1]  Definitions.  Unless
otherwise clear from the context, as used in this chapter:



"Defendant" means a person (including
a corporation, association, partnership, firm, or governmental entity) against
whom litigation is brought or maintained, or sought to be brought or
maintained.



"In propria persona" means on the
person's own behalf acting as plaintiff.



"Litigation" means any civil action
or proceeding, commenced, maintained, or pending in any state or federal court
of record.



"Plaintiff" means the person who
commences, institutes or maintains litigation or causes it to be commenced,
instituted, or maintained, including an attorney at law acting on the
attorney's own behalf.



"Security" means an undertaking to
assure payment, to the party for whose benefit the undertaking is required to
be furnished, of the party's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees,
and not limited to taxable costs incurred in or in connection with a litigation
instituted, caused to be instituted, or maintained or caused to be maintained
by a vexatious litigant.



"Vexatious litigant" means a
plaintiff who does any of the following:



(1)  In the immediately preceding seven-year period
has commenced, prosecuted, or maintained in propria persona at least five civil
actions other than in a small claims court that have been:



(A)  Finally determined adversely to the
plaintiff; or



(B)  Unjustifiably permitted to remain pending
at least two years without having been brought to trial or hearing;



(2)  After litigation has been finally resolved
against the plaintiff, relitigates or attempts to relitigate in propria persona
and in bad faith, either:



(A)  The validity of the determination against
the same defendant or defendants as to whom the litigation was finally
determined; or



(B)  The cause of action, claim, controversy,
or any of the issues of fact or law, determined or concluded by the final
determination against the same defendant or defendants as to whom the
litigation was finally determined;



(3)  In any litigation while acting in propria
persona, files, in bad faith, unmeritorious motions, pleadings, or other
papers, conducts unnecessary discovery, or engages in other tactics that are
frivolous or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay; or



(4)  Has previously been declared to be a vexatious
litigant by any state or federal court of record in any action or proceeding
based upon the same or substantially similar facts, transaction, or occurrence.
[L 1993, c 124, pt of §1]



 



Case Notes



 



  Trial court's declaration of plaintiff as vexatious litigant
not abuse of discretion where plaintiff failed in separate incidents to serve
and/or inappropriately served separate documents on defendant, failed to
produce documents to defendant's attorney and committed inappropriate service of
documents, and filed at least one motion that was without merit.  102 H. 289,
75 P.3d 1180.



  As a vexatious litigant must be a natural person, given
plaintiff's corporate status, trial court erred in determining that corporation
was a vexatious litigant under this chapter; also, as only a plaintiff may be
deemed a vexatious litigant, trial court erred in determining that attorney of
record for plaintiffs was a vexatious litigant under this chapter.  98 H. 95
(App.), 43 P.3d 232.



  Where Hawaii supreme court had opined in a previous case that
plaintiff had "engaged in a pattern of frivolous and vexatious
litigation" and that case and the present case were "based upon the
same or substantially similar facts, transaction, or occurrence", trial
court correctly determined that plaintiff was a vexatious litigant under this
section.  98 H. 95 (App.), 43 P.3d 232.