REPORT TITLE:
Mortgages, Statute of Limits.


DESCRIPTION:
Provides for a 6-year statute of limitations for mortgages.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.439        
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO MORTGAGES.
 


BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  Current statutory law in Hawaii places a six-
 
 2 year statute of limitations on promissory notes.  However, in a
 
 3 mortgage that is subject to a promissory note, no specific
 
 4 statutory statute of limitations exists on the mortgage itself.
 
 5 Hawaii common law dating back to the Kingdom of Hawaii seems to
 
 6 indicate that the same statute of limitations that applies to
 
 7 land actions applies, which is now twenty years.  
 
 8      It is confusing to have two very different statutes of
 
 9 limitations on what is essentially the same transaction.  The
 
10 purpose of this Act is to specify that the statute of limitations
 
11 for an action on a mortgage is the same as on its promissory
 
12 note, six years.
 
13      SECTION 2.  Section 657-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
 
14 amended to read as follows:
 
15      "�657-1 Six years.  The following actions shall be
 
16 commenced within six years next after the cause of action
 
17 accrued, and not after:
 
18      (1)  Actions for the recovery of any debt founded upon any
 
19           contract, obligation, or liability, excepting such as
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.439        
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1           are brought upon the judgment or decree of a court;
 
 2           excepting further that actions for the recovery of any
 
 3           debt founded upon any contract, obligation, or
 
 4           liability made pursuant to chapter 577A shall be
 
 5           governed by chapter 577A;
 
 6      (2)  Actions upon judgments or decrees rendered in any court
 
 7           not of record in the State, or, subject to section
 
 8           657-9, in any court of record in any foreign
 
 9           jurisdiction;
 
10      (3)  Actions for taking or detaining any goods or chattels,
 
11           including actions in the nature of replevin;
 
12      (4)  Personal actions of any nature whatsoever not
 
13           specifically covered by the laws of the State[.]; and
 
14      (5)  Foreclosure actions."
 
15      SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed.
 
16 New statutory material is underscored.
 
17      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
 
18 
 
19                           INTRODUCED BY:_________________________