A 56-year-old Waianae Coast pig farmer prevailed both in a state appeals court and district court over a landlord who took steps to evict him.

The court rulings pave the way for Matthew Reyes to return to the 1.75-acre portion of the 5-acre Maili property on Paakea Road and continue to farm.

Reyes had been operating a piggery for 22 years before landlord Peter Iriarte took steps to evict him from the property beginning in September 2021. Reyes’ large family depended on the piggery for their livelihood.

During the dispute with Iriarte, water lines to the farm were cut, resulting in the death of more than 100 of Reyes’ 450 pigs. Iriarte, head of the local plasterers and masons union, used a union lawyer to send letters to Reyes falsely claiming his lease was invalid. He then retained real estate and development lawyer Terrence Lee, who filed a complaint in small claims court to evict Reyes, alleging the lease was invalid. But the court had ruled earlier in the case that the lease was valid.

Nonetheless, at trial in December Judge Thomas Haia ordered Reyes to vacate the property, which he did.

Reyes was forced to move 66 pigs, including a few 400-pound sows and 650- pound breeding boars, in six days but retained attorney Keith Kiuchi, who took the case to the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

The appeals court sent the case back down to Waianae District Court, saying Haia failed to issue the required findings of fact so that the appeals court could make a meaningful analysis.

A different district judge found that Reyes did not voluntarily leave the property, as Iriarte had claimed, and that Reyes could actually continue to farm until his lease ends in July 2024. Iriarte, by this point, had demolished remaining pens and filled a sump into which the waste would flow.

Kiuchi said in his appeal that Haia wrongly allowed Iriarte to shift his complaint from his claim that Reyes did not have a valid lease to arguing that the case was about failure to pay rent.

Lee declined a Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for comment on the case.

Kiuchi said the trial transcripts show Haia wrongly acted like a settlement judge, not a trial judge.

“I think the (appeals court) saw the inequities in the case. They don’t think it’s fair.”

Iriarte tried to get the appeal dismissed, calling it moot, contending Reyes voluntarily vacated the property and that since Iriarte demolished the remaining pig pens, fixtures and improvements, including filling in the sump into which wastewater flows, the property is rendered useless to run the piggery.

But the appeals court did not agree.

Instead, the court found the lower court erred by not issuing the findings of fact, quoting case law. It also said it will not rule on issues “dependent upon the credibility of witnesses and the weight of evidence,” which “should be left to the trier of fact.”

The appeals court temporarily remanded the case back to district court Aug. 30 to determine whether Reyes left voluntarily and whether the property remains usable for Reyes to run his piggery operation.

The Waianae District Court held an evidentiary hearing Sept. 26 with a different judge, and Iriarte and Reyes both testified.

On Oct. 6, District Judge Summer Odo-Kupau issued an order finding Reyes did not vacate the property voluntarily.

Judge Odo-Kupau noted Reyes did not have a lawyer when he received a Dec. 27 letter from Lee that he was required to vacate immediately and had until Jan. 4, 2023, to do so.

“Although he wanted to appeal, he believed he could not remain on the property because the trial judge twice told him in court he had to leave,” the order says.

“Believing he had no choice in the matter, and feeling pressured by the letter — its relatively quick move out date for livestock was, in his words, ‘pushed upon’ him — Reyes removed his pigs and other belongings from the property.”

The court also found that the property remains usable for Reyes’ piggery operations.

Reyes has materials to install new pens on the property, and with access to water, he could run the pig farm again, the order said.

After Reyes left the property, Iriarte installed a padlock and demolished the piggery area, including the pens.

The case now goes back to the ICA.