§10.  Construction of existing statutes.  That all rights of action, suits at law and in equity, prosecutions, and judgments existing prior to the taking effect of this Act shall continue to be as effectual as if this Act had not been passed; and those in favor of or against the Republic of Hawaii, and not assumed by or transferred to the United States, shall be equally valid in favor of or against the government of the Territory of Hawaii.  All offenses which by statute then in force were punishable as offenses against the Republic of Hawaii shall be punishable as offenses against the government of the Territory of Hawaii, unless such statute is inconsistent with this Act, or shall be repealed or changed by law.  No person shall be subject to imprisonment for nonpayment of taxes nor for debt.  All criminal and penal proceedings then pending in the courts of the Republic of Hawaii shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution in the name of the Territory of Hawaii; all such proceedings, all actions at law, suits in equity, and other proceedings then pending in the courts of the Republic of Hawaii shall be carried on to final judgment and execution in the corresponding courts of the Territory of Hawaii; and all process issued and sentences imposed before this Act takes effect shall be as valid as if issued or imposed in the name of the Territory of Hawaii:  Provided, That no suit or proceedings shall be maintained for the specific performance of any contract heretofore or hereafter entered into for personal labor or service, nor shall any remedy exist or be enforced for breach of any such contract, except in a civil suit or proceeding instituted solely to recover damages for such breach:  Provided further, That the provisions of this section shall not modify or change the laws of the United States applicable to merchant seamen.

     That all contracts made since August twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, by which persons are held for service for a definite term, are hereby declared null and void and terminated, and no law shall be passed to enforce said contracts in any way; and it shall be the duty of the United States marshal to at once notify such persons so held of the termination of their contracts. [Am June 27, 1952, c 477, §403(a), 66 Stat 279]

  Compare Const. of 1894, Art. 92, §§1-3.  Admiralty cases were included in "other proceedings" under this §, and those then pending continued in the jurisdiction of the territorial courts, though subsequent ones could be brought only in the federal court, and no appeal lay in such pending cases to the federal circuit court of appeals:  13 H. 174; 108 Fed. 113; 183 U.S. 545; 187 U.S. 309.  A petition in 1904 for the removal of a guardian appointed in 1899 is in a proceeding pending in 1899: 197 U.S. 354.  An action by the Territory for taxes due the Republic is not barred:  18 H. 255.  Imprisonment, for contempt, to compel an administrator to pay creditors pro rata is not imprisonment for debt:  19 H. 234; but the execution of a writ of ne exeat, in assumpsit, to obtain security for a judgment that might be recovered would be such imprisonment:  15 H. 413.

  Inhibition against suit on contract for personal service except for damages for breach, does not prevent injunction against exhibition or dealing in moving pictures in violation of contract:  22 H. 550; nor does this provision apply to a contract to have one cultivate on shares land in sugar cane for three crops in a husbandlike manner to the satisfaction of another:  25 H. 558.  On contract labor laws, see note to Joint Resolution of Annexation RLH 1955, page 13.  On applicability to Hawaii of Federal laws against introduction of contract labor, see 27 Ops. 479.  Referred to in 16 H. 245, 255; 18 H. 539; 20 H. 487; 22 H. 587; 197 U.S. 354; 1 U.S.D.C. Haw. 41.

Law Journals and Reviews

  Hawai‘i's Masters and Servants Act:  Brutal Slavery?  31 UH L. Rev. 87.