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Chun v. Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System of State of Hawaii1/31/2005
FOR PUBLICATION
The appellees-appellants/appellees-appellees Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System (ERS) of the State of Hawaii [hereinafter, "the Board"] and the ERS [collectively hereinafter, "the ERS"] appeal from the October 18, 2000 order of the circuit court of the first circuit, the Honorable Eden E. Hifo presiding, following remand from this court regarding attorneys' fees and postjudgment interest for retired teachers of the class action [hereinafter, "the order granting fees and interest"].
The appellants-appellees/appellants-appellants Michael A.S. Chun, Gladys Farm, Herbert T. Imanaka, Jimmy Izu, Samuel Y. Kakazu, Billy G. Southwood, Eishin Tengan, and Thomas Y. Yano [collectively hereinafter, "the Principals and Vice Principals"], as well as Valerie Yamada Southwood and Barbara Jane Luke [collectively hereinafter, "the Teachers"] [both classes collectively hereinafter, "the Retirees"] appeal from the following orders of the circuit court of the first circuit, the Honorable Eden E. Hifo presiding: (1) the October 18, 2000 order granting fees and interest; and (2) the February 14, 2001 order granting the ERS's December 19, 2000 motion for partial stay of proceedings to enforce the order granting fees and interest pending appeal [hereinafter, "the order granting stay of proceedings"].
On appeal, the ERS argues, inter alia, that the circuit court erred in entering the order granting fees and interest, inasmuch as "sovereign immunity bars the award of postjudgment interest." In response, the Retirees contend, inter alia, that "there is no merit to [the ERS's] sovereign immunity argument."
In their cross-appeal of the order granting fees and interest, see supra note 1, the Retirees allege that the circuit court erred in entering the order granting fees and interest for the following reasons: (1) the circuit court should not have excluded an "award of postjudgment interest" "from the 'percentage of the common fund' calculation of attorney[s'] fees"; (2) the circuit court should not have excluded "the gross amount recovered for [the Retirees]" "from the percentage of the common fund calculation of attorney[s'] fees"; (3) the circuit court should not have applied "the federal court's precedent rather than [the standards of] Hawaii appellate court[s, which were] enunciated in [In re Chow, 3 Haw. App. 577, 656 P.2d 105 (1982)]," or, in the alternative, the circuit court erred in its application of federal precedent; (4) the circuit court "fail to enforce the implied agreement to pay [the Retirees] investment income earned on wrongfully withheld back retirement benefits"; and (5) the circuit court "fail to enforce the expressed agreement to pay [the Retirees] the premium or interest on back retirement benefits."
The ERS counters, inter alia: (1) that "in calculating the common fund, the [circuit] court did not abuse its discretion in excluding its postjudgment interest award to the eachers' class"; (2) that "in calculating the common fund, the [circuit] court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the 'offset' for mandatory contributions ordered by Judge Nakatani"; (3) that "in this common fund case, the [circuit] court did not abuse its discretion by applying the 25 percent benchmark adopted by the inth circuit court of ppeals" and "did not abuse its discretion by declining [Charles Khim's (i.e., the Retirees' counsel's)] request for [one-third] percentage of the common fund"; (4) that "the lower court never addressed, nor was it asked to address[,] an 'implied contract' theory of recovery for interest, and [the Retirees] are precluded from raising this new issue on appeal"; and (5) that "the [circuit] court correctly decline
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