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Doe Parents No. 1 v. State11/27/2002
lso consider ' he spirit of the law, and the cause which induced the legislature to enact it . . . to discover its true meaning.'" Id. (quoting HRS § 1-15(2) (1993)) (additional citation omitted). Similarly, "' aws in parimateria, or upon the same subject matter, shall be construed with reference to each other,'" and, thus, "'what is clear in one statute may be called upon in aid to explain what is doubtful in another.'" Id.(quoting HRS § 1-16 (1993)) (additional citation omitted).
B. Findings Of Fact And Conclusions Of Law
1. Duty of care
. . . The existence of a duty, that is, whether such a relation exists between the parties that the community will impose a legal obligation upon one for the benefit of the other -- or, more simply, whether the interest of a plaintiff who has suffered invasion is entitled to legal protection at the expense of a defendant -- is entirely a question of law. . . .
Ruf v. Honolulu Police Dep't, 89 Hawaii 315, 320, 972 P.2d 1081, 1086 (1999) (citations omitted) (some ellipsis points added and some in original). Accordingly, this court reviews a trial court's conclusion of law with regard to the duty of care that a defendant owes to a plaintiff in a negligence action "de novo[,] under the right/wrong standard" of review. Id.(citations omitted). As such, this court "examine the facts and answer the question [i.e., whether the defendant owes the plaintiff a duty of care and, if so, the scope of that duty] without being required to give any weight to the trial court's answer to it." Id. (citations omitted). This is because a trial court's "conclusion of law is not binding upon appellate court and is freely reviewable [on appeal] for its correctness." Id. (citations omitted) (some brackets added and some omitted).
2. Breach of duty and legal causation
Whether there was a breach of duty or not, i.e., whether there was a failure on the defendant's part to exercise reasonable care, is a question for the trier of fact. "For 'under the prevailing rule[,] duty . . . is bounded by the foreseeable range of danger,' and 'reasonable foreseeability of harm is the very prototype of the question a [trier of fact] must pass upon in particularizing the standard of conduct in the case before it.'" Knodle v. Waikiki Gateway Hotel, Inc., 69 Haw. 376, 385, 742 P.2d 377, 383 (1987) (citations omitted) (some brackets added and some omitted) (ellipsis points in original).
Similarly, " he presence of a reasonably close connection between the defendant's conduct and the plaintiff's injury , i.e.[,] 'whether the breach of duty was more likely than not a substantial factor in causing the harm complained of[,] is normally a question for the [trier of fact] too.'" Id. (citations omitted) (some brackets added and some omitted). Accordingly, absent uncontroverted evidence from which only one inference can reasonably be drawn, the questions of breach of duty and legal causation constitute questions of fact, reviewable on appeal only for clear error. See, e.g., Taylor-Rice v. State, 91 Hawaii 60, 69-70, 979 P.2d 1086, 1095-96 (1999); Knodle, 69 Haw. at 387-89, 742 P.2d at 384-85.
A finding of fact is clearly erroneous "when (1) the record lacks substantial evidence to support the finding, or (2) despite substantial evidence in support of the finding, the appellate court is nonetheless left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made." In re Jane Doe, 95 Hawaii at 190, 20 P.3d at 623 (citation omitted). "'Substantial evidence' . . . is credible evidence [that] is of sufficient quality and probative value to enable a person of reasonable caution" to draw a conclusion. Id. (citation and some quota
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