The Hawaii Supreme Court this week reversed a 2019 ruling by the Intermediate Court of Appeals and reinstated a Honolulu jury’s award of more than $600,000 to Donna Lee Ching. The decision appears to put an end to a longstanding dispute between Ching and her neighbors over an easement for access to her property in lower Manoa. In this case, Ching’s neighbors were also family, adding sizzle to the tensions between the parties. On the other side of the fence, so to speak, were Denby Dung, Miss Hawaii 2001; her sister, Darah, voted Miss Chinatown in 2003; along with their brother, mother, and uncle, who is Ching’s second cousin.

The Supreme Court’s 46-page decision written by Justice Michael Wilson can be found on the Judiciary website.

The 2019 ICA ruling had overturned an earlier jury verdict in Ching’s favor back in March 2016. The jury at that time agreed the evidence in the case showed the Dung family had engaged in a civil conspiracy against Ching by causing repeated nuisances aimed at making her life miserable, invaded her privacy, and engaged in malicious prosecution. The ICA threw out the jury’s damage award, which included $500,000 in general damages, $100,000 in punitive damages, and $16,600 in special damages, and instead ordered a new trial in the case.

Ching appealed the ICA verdict, and the Supreme Court this week ruled in her favor, and against the Dung family, on each issue raised on appeal. The court ordered that the original jury verdict be reinstated.

Ching was represented by a team of attorneys led by Terry Revere, who has won several large judgements on behalf of condominium owners in several disputes with neighbors or their condominium associations.

The Ching/Dung dispute, which extended over much of two decades, included an astounding array of allegations and cross-allegations raised in the original jury trial which I recounted in a March 2016 Civil Beat column, “Ian Lind: The Dung Sisters’ Family Feud Gets Out Of Control.”

Here’s the lead of that much longer column.

A Circuit Court jury in Honolulu last week awarded more than $600,000 in damages to a Honolulu woman, culminating a decade-long legal dispute between neighbors over a shared driveway that gave rise to rival allegations of harassment, attempted intimidation, trespassing, invasion of privacy, character assassination and more.

Following a three-week trial, the jury found former Miss Hawaii Denby Dung, her sister, Darah, a former Miss Chinatown USA, along with their brother, mother, and uncle, liable for damages to their neighbor, Donna Lee Ching.

The parties are more than neighbors, they are family. Ching and Dixon Dung, the uncle of the Dung sisters and a defendant in the case, are second cousins, according to documents filed in the case.

The jury found members of the Dung family engaged in a civil conspiracy to harass, threaten and intimidate Ching in order to discourage her from pursuing the driveway dispute. The jury also found the Dungs invaded Ching’s privacy and defamed her, including by posting derogatory comments on their shared Facebook page.

I would encourage you to read the column. It’s an amazing tale.