Good ol’ Mark Zuckerberg is in the headlines again and, once again, there are a whole bunch of question marks about it. Mark’s latest chess moves are somewhat complicated. In 2014, Mark and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, purchased 700 acres in Kauai for $100 million. Among the 700 acres are about a dozen small parcels of kuleana lands. Kuleana lands are real estate acquired by local families through The Kuleana Act of 1850 which grant the land owners the legal right to enter Zuck’s property to get to their parcel. So Zuck filed several “quiet title” lawsuits against those who hold the kuleanu lands on his property. Because the kuleana lands are passed to the heirs of the original owner, some parcels can have hundreds of owners, and many of them not aware they hold this property. The quiet title lawsuits are an effort to reach all owners to compensate them for their lands. When people saw the lawsuit headlines and started questioning what was going on, Zuck quickly took to Facebook to explain that this was just a common formality in an attempt to compensate those who don’t even know they are owed money:
There have been some misleading stories going around today about our plans in Hawaii, so I want to clear this up.
I posted last month about how Priscilla and I bought some land in Hawaii. We want to create a home on the island, and help preserve the wildlife and natural beauty. You can read about it here.
The land is made up of a few properties. In each case, we worked with the majority owners of each property and reached a deal they thought was fair and wanted to make on their own.
As with most transactions, the majority owners have the right to sell their land if they want, but we need to make sure smaller partial owners get paid for their fair share too.
In Hawaii, this is where it gets more complicated. As part of Hawaiian history, in the mid-1800s, small parcels were granted to families, which after generations might now be split among hundreds of descendants. There aren’t always clear records, and in many cases descendants who own 1/4% or 1% of a property don’t even know they are entitled to anything.
To find all these partial owners so we can pay them their fair share, we filed what is called a “quiet title” action. For most of these folks, they will now receive money for something they never even knew they had. No one will be forced off the land.
We are working with a professor of native Hawaiian studies and long time member of this community, who is participating in this quiet title process with us. It is important to us that we respect Hawaiian history and traditions.
We love Hawaii and we want to be good members of the community and preserve the environment. We look forward to working closely with the community for years to come.
See? This is just Zuck doing what is right so he can be a good Hawaiian and write checks to everyone who is owed something, even though they don’t know they are owned.
Or, this is a billionaire who knows that legal battles come down to dollars and he has more.
Those named in the lawsuit have 20 days to respond or they lose their rights to the land. In addition, the lands could be forced into a partition sale by a judge, which is generally done by public auction with the land going to the higher bidder. When one of the bidders is the sixth richest person in the world, my guess is he will emerge the victor. And all of this means more native lands are taken out of native hands. A Hawaiian attorney named Lance Collins breaks this down better than I could:
You can read about Partition Law here and more about this specific case here. I am in over my head with all the legal mechanizations and implications. At first swipe, I gave Zuck the benefit of the doubt that he was following common practice. And he is, but it appears to be a common practice in place to protected the moneyed and not the native land owners. His “best intentions” sound a lot more like “own interests.”
Photo credit: Fame/Flynet Photos and Facebook
He needs to let this go. The native peoples of Hawaii are owed this, and should be protected. Land is expensive in Hawaii– homelessness is a growing problem. He needs to respect those laws, he has his fair share of that island.
Exactly. And who the hell needs 700 acres of land anyway?
There are rumors that Zuckerberg wants to run for president in 2020. I sincerely hope he does not. The last thing we need is another out of touch billionaire claiming he knows how to “fix” this country.
I own a vacation home in Hawaii, and their laws are quite different from the rest of the US when it comes to native rights. The Hawaii Supreme Court has said land that is less than fully developed is open to native Hawaiians to exercise their cultural practices (for example, gathering rights, access to ocean, etc.). I suspect Zukerberg is trying to cut off all access native Hawaiians may have to “his” property by this quiet title action. To be clear, a native Hawaiian does NOT have to technically “own” the property to be entitled to historic and customary practices, but I think Zukerberg would have a better argument if he can buy out all interests in the property, as a first step toward cutting off all access to the land. He can spin it however he wants to, but I predict that’s his end goal, and what will probably be the end result. It’s very sad, and abusive to a group of people who were already treated poorly by mainlanders.
I’m not really familiar with the nature of these sales. Is the argument that he’s going about it the wrong way, or just that he shouldn’t be buying land in Hawaii? Aren’t all non-natives who own land in Hawaii guilty of the same thing?
He bought a 700-acre parcel of land that includes smaller parcels owned by native Hawaiian families. He wants the courts to force the native families to sell their small parcels of land at auction, against their will, so that he can buy them out.
I’m still so confused as to why he and his wife need 700 acres of land in Hawaii? I mean, wouldn’t 5 acres or less be enough? After all, it’s only the two of them and one kid.
It’s just so greedy. I doubt that they want 700 acres to make it into some sort of wildlife preserve that everybody can visit for free. This is all about hogging 700 acres so they can have a veritable kingdom unto themselves whenever they decide to vacation there. It’s such a waste of the land to let them do this. Hawaii is so special, and there are customs and traditions tied to the land that I don’t think Z and his wife understand or respect.
I also think his post to explain why he’s trying to quiet title is disingenuous. He may be extremely successful at what he does and extremely wealthy, but I really doubt his integrity.
I am going to need people to go as hard on him as they did JLaw when her Hawaiian story came out. People need to start threatening to shut down their Facebook accounts and removing their businesses from his SM site if he steals these peoples land by forcing them to sell.
This is a really white thing to do.
Protecting the land from those ignorant Native Hawaiian savages who don’t care about their own land and history? Seriously Mark? The only people destroying Hawaii are tourists and visitors like you. Hawaiians valued their land and Earth before the piligrams ever landed. Out of here with that condescending bull shat.
It’s 2017 and White men are still trying to take over the land of Native peoples to “save them from themselves”. People on Facebook need to drag this delusional conqueror for filth. I’m honestly shocked that he wrote that statement.
This inference is such a stretch. He’s vowing to not lay waste to the land, not to protect it against its native inhabitants?
I fail to see the problem. Why was this land sold to him in the first place? If I spent 100 million dollars on property, I wouldn’t want it to be publicly accessible, I’d consider it private property. The problem seems to be with the person/government who sold MZ the land in the first place.
Ugh. Disgusting.
The epitome of white male privilege – that is not supposed to exist – right there.
As a real estate attorney that oversees hundreds of real estate transactions in Hawaii a year, this is likely legit. Sure, the action of course serves the second purpose of establishing title in his and his wife’s name, but it likely is the only way most minor owners of the land even know that they own it. Hawaiian land issues are so complex, but this is pretty much a non issue IMO. What good does a 1% interest in a parcel of land do for anyone if the majority owners have already decided to sell it? This way they actually get paid for it.
Of course, the implications of WHY this is an issue is a whole other thing. Of course I see how symbolically this just looks like another white man taking over the native inhabitants’ land. But I think that’s why they’re making an effort to preserve it – and it’s not like the current inhabitants/maj. owners were forced to negotiate to sell.
I was thinking along these lines – and speculated on why below.
Thanks for the info! It sounds very complicated.
Whatever the situation, I hope the land is preserved.
Thanks for the info Ashley, it helps a bit. Now, if Zuckerberg turns right around after this is settled and wills all 700 acres to some kind of land conservation trust, he can fix the perception he’s taking something away from the people…
That’s a really good idea! @ncboudicca – you might need to be his PR person!
And kuleana lands can be quite small parcels, I believe, somewhere along the lines of 8 acres here, 10 acres there. I think they were envisioned as homesteads. I agree, the optics are bad, though.
That 1% is important to THEM because it’s the one tie they have to their ancestral lands. They don’t want his money, they want their descendants to have a tie to the land too. People may have a hard time understanding that not everyone is motivated by money. Some native people feel their ties to the land is more important than whatever money Zukerberg wants to pay for the land.
And he wants to run for president! This is just his way of running slip shod over people to get what he wants.
Combined with what I’ve heard about how he treats his neighbors in Palo Alto, not a fan.
He lives in a very affluent part of Palo Alto and he is surrounded by fellow rich people, who are fine with him. It’s good that he bought in a neighborhood and didn’t sequester himself in a huge estate in Atherton or Woodside. Steve Jobs lived a few blocks away. I’ve lived in the area for many years, Facebook, which is located in Menlo Park, is doing great things for the East Menlo Park and East Palo Alto school districts which are heavily Hispanic, Tongan and African American. Anyone that compares Zuckerberg to Trump is insane. His wife, who is Asian-American, completed her pediatric residency while he built up Facebook and is much admired.
Everyone should read the lawyer Ashley’s comments above and not just spew out hateful comments.
Actually-several of the white people are not happy with him at all. My friend’s elderly aunt is his neighbor and he is a complete and total a-hole.
There was literally an entire movie made about him being an a-hole. Of course he’s one.
He’s so gross. He’s got billions at his disposal to buy whatever he wants. Why must he own these ancestral lands too? Aren’t his multiple mansions enough already?
I read an article this morning in The New Yorker about how a lot of very wealthy Americans, including tech titans, have been buying land off the mainland and developing disaster plans. New Zealand seems to be popular. Not saying this is what the Zuckerbergs have in mind. It was just an interesting piece. I guess they read The Hunger Games too.
Whoa…I need to go read that!
My future in laws own some of that land. Jerk.
He’s too big for his britches…so arrogant! Never understand why people make him out to be a saint when he’s just another business man looking to make a great deal at someone else’s expense.
He donated a lot and he talks the feminist talk. So at least he seems different than what we think of as a fat cat ?!
I’ll bite. I can see a reason for him to do this. He has a big piece of land with a lot of rights of passage through it. Meaning: people get to walk or drive through the land he otherwise owns. If he wants to put in security or a fence even, he can’t do that because of these rights. Security is a different situation for high profile people and he may just be trying to reasonably protect his family. Maybe.
Then again, this could just be a rich jerk move.
Afaik, land in France is also inherited this way. All heirs receive some portion of the property.
On the one hand, It can be a mess because all the heirs must agree on the sale and its terms or no deal. So some land sits there unused, and many people own 1/32 or 1/64 or 1/128 or what ever.
BUT – On the other hand, things stay in the family, and there are some places with tradition going back centuries in a family. That is not the kind of thing that is replaceable, or something so easily bought.
It’s a kind of global gentrification what zuckerberg is doing, and I am not in favor of it.
America and England and France and Holland and Germany etc etc etc got rich pillaging poorer countries or colonies or other indigenous people of their resources, or even taxing them (the us wasn’t the only one taxed without representation folks), and then a century or decades later the imperialists get to seem like they are “saving” those places?
So the US billionaires can just buy up Puerto Rican land and displace natives because..,,why not? They’ll be “fairly compensated.” And some French guy can buy up the Seychelles, etc etc
No thanks.
why does Zucky get the benefit of the doubt…. because he’s a white man with a WOC wife and has pledged to eradicate diseases with his billions. This is what zuck does…. he creatively legally ousted other forgotten partners of his initial start up facebook, i aint never forgot the expose on that. lol
Did we just give him the benefit of the doubt because also we think those poor little indigenous people dont even know themselves…. zucky the tech guru white guy is helping them…. the only one who has their best interest in mind are themselves not some land hunger silicon valley type with already like 90% of the land lol…
Wow. What a story. What a d*ckhead. And what if you were away during this 20 days’ notification process? You come home from say, Europe and surprise!!! You’ve lost your land, courtesy of Mark Zuckerberg needing to protect 700 acres from your grubby paws. I don’t see how THIS is legal until everyone is heard from. 20 days my ass.
This is really common in Oklahoma too. I’m Choctaw & was contacted by a bunch of oil companies 3 years ago for land my sister & I owned that I had no idea existed based on similar laws. Turns out, after digging through the histories, the oil companies were mistaken and my grandpa had sold the land ages ago, so my sister and I didn’t get an extra $10,000 to split. Personally, I didn’t care much because the land in Oklahoma parceled out to Native Americans is rather undesirable and I have no interest having ties to there again. But Hawaii? I think Zuckerberg is being a greedy douche for buying land that he clearly knew was parceled. It’s one thing to make an offer fairly, but the quiet title action (if he is indeed pulling that crap) is unethical AF and negates all his proclaimed “good intentions,” in my opinion.
He doesn’t seem to understand — or, he understands perfectly well, but doesn’t care — that some native Hawaiians don’t want his money, they want to preserve their connection to their ancestral lands for future generations. But Zukerberg has a lot of money, so too bad for the natives, right? He’s such an ass.
Are there any rich people who don’t automatically become super-selfish and devoid of empathy?
Nope. They actually become extremely wealthy, because they were “super-selfish and devoid of empathy” to start with.
We also own rental property in the general vicinity so I’ve been following this since he purchased the ranch. There have been other problems; building a wall around the property which blocks some views, and generally limiting beach access. It’s also rumored that several of his tech colleagues will be building homes on his property- like a private gated community. Kauai residents are militant about their homelands and I think he’s in for a fight in the media.
My property is not on Kauai, but I wish the residents there good luck. Keep up the good fight. If you can keep mongooses out, you can keep the Zukerbergs out.