The Hawaii Supreme Court has reinstated a court order prohibiting former auto dealer James Pflueger from cutting off water and interfering with an adjacent landowner’s access to a home on a remote property on Kauai’s northeast shore.

The ruling ends more than 10 years of litigation over Pflueger’s illegal bulldozing of his property that resulted in mudslides during heavy rain that covered the land of Amy and Richard Marvin and destroyed their home in 2001.

Kauai Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe issued the 2007 decision ordering Pflueger not to interfere with the Marvins’ access to their residence and to water from a spring and an irrigation ditch on Pflueger’s land.

The judge based her ruling on land rights established through the Kuleana Act of 1850 that gave landowners access to their property and water from nearby lands.

The state appeals court overturned Watanabe’s decision in 2010, ruling that Heidi Huddy-Yamamoto, who also owned property adjacent to Pflueger’s land, should have been part of the court case in determining the Marvins’ access rights.

But in a 4-1 ruling last month, the high court said the neighbor was not a necessary party and upheld Watanabe’s ruling.

"We’re grateful and humbled that the Supreme Court would uphold over 160 years of kuleana law," said Kauai attorney Teresa Tico, the Marvins’ lawyer.

Honolulu attorney Peter Esser, who also represented the Marvins, said the significance to his clients is that it brings an end to 10 years of litigation and "a long legal nightmare."

David Minkin, a Honolulu lawyer representing Pflueger, said they were disappointed.

"We had a 3-0 ruling by the Intermediate Court of Appeals that we believed adequately and thoroughly covered the indispensable party issue," he said. "And to have the Supreme Court reverse that is very disappointing."

Pflueger’s illegal grading and bulldozing on his 378-acre property has already cost him millions of dollars. The November 2001 mudslides also destroyed pristine coral reefs at Pilaa Bay.

Pflueger pleaded guilty in 2005 to 10 water pollution felony charges in state court. He was fined $500,000.

He also reached a settlement with the Justice Department, the state, Kauai County and environmental groups in 2006 in their federal Clean Water Act lawsuit.

It called for Pflueger to pay $2 million in fines to the state and federal governments, the largest Clean Water Act storm water penalty in the United States at the time for damage to a site by a landowner.

He also had to pay more than $5 million to repair the damage.

In addition, the state Land Board fined Pflueger $4 million, which is on appeal.

The Marvins’ 31,000-square-foot beachfront property is surrounded by land owned by Pflueger and Huddy-Yamamoto.

The Marvins filed their lawsuit in 2002 against Pflueger and reached a confidential out-of-court settlement that covered the damage to their home.

But in retaliation for their lawsuit, Pflueger cut off access and water to the property where three generations of Marvins have resided, Esser said.

In her ruling, Watanabe cited kuleana rights under the 1850 act that has been incorporated in state law. The act preserved the rights of Hawaiians to have access to their land and water for their homes and for growing taro.

The high court’s majority opinion issued April 27 was written by Associate Justice Paula Nakayama. In dissent, Associate Justice Simeon Acoba said he agrees with the appeals court ruling.

Pflueger faces felony criminal charges in two cases.

He is scheduled to go on trial in October on Kauai on manslaughter charges over the deaths of seven people killed when the Ka Loko dam breached in 2006 and sent hundreds of millions of gallons of water surging to the island’s north shore.

He is also scheduled to go on trial in January on federal tax charges that include not reporting the profit from a 2007 sale of California land.