Haw. Rev. Stat. » Haw. Rev. Stat. / Chapter 449
Hawaii Revised Statutes

Haw. Rev. Stat. § 449-1 (2025)

  Definitions

✓ laws through the 2025 session: the 2026 session is not included
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section HI-LEGcapitol.hawaii.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

     §449-1  Definitions.  As used in this chapter:

     "Acquisition of control" means acquisition by a person or persons acting in concert of the power to vote fifty-one per cent or more of any voting securities of a licensee.

     "Branch office" means any location, separate from the principal place of business of the escrow depository, that is identified by any means to the public or customers as a location at which the licensee holds itself out as an escrow depository.

     "Commissioner" means the commissioner of financial institutions of this State.

     "Control", in the context of control of an applicant or licensee, means ownership of or the power to vote twenty-five per cent or more of the outstanding voting securities of a licensee or controlling person.  For purposes of determining the percentage of a licensee controlled by any person, there shall be aggregated with the controlling person's interest the interest of any other person controlled by the person, or by any spouse, parent, or child of the person.

     "Controlling person" means any person in control of a licensee or applicant.

     "Division" means the division of financial institutions of the department of commerce and consumer affairs.

     "Escrow" means any transaction affecting the title to real property, including leaseholds, proprietary leaseholds, and condominiums, in which a person not a party to the transaction and neither having nor acquiring any interest in the title receives from one party to the transaction, holds until the happening of an event or performance of a condition and then delivers to another party to the transaction, any money or other consideration or any instrument affecting the title to that real property, all in accordance with the terms of the agreement between the parties to the transaction.

     "Escrow account" means any escrow depository account with a financial institution to which cash or items are deposited with respect to any escrow.

     "Escrow depository" means the corporation which, in an escrow, and for compensation, receives, holds, and delivers the money, other consideration, or instrument affecting title to real property.

     "Financial institution" means any bank, savings and loan association, financial services loan company, or credit union doing business in the State whose accounts are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund or other similar or successor program of federal insurance.

     "Item" means any check (including a cashier's or certified check), negotiable order of withdrawal, draft, traveler's check, or money order.

     "NMLS" means a licensing system developed and maintained by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators for the state licensing and registration of state-licensed loan originators and other financial services providers, or any system provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

     "Person" means, in addition to the singular, persons, group of persons, cooperative association, company, firm, partnership, corporation, or other legal entity, and includes the agents and employees of any person.

     "Principal" means a manager and anyone else who supervises or is in charge of the applicant or licensee. [L 1967, c 144, pt of §1; HRS §449-1; am L 1985, c 269, §49; am L 1986, c 331, §1; am L 1992, c 205, §2; am L 2001, c 184, §2; am L 2013, c 166, §2; am L 2016, c 224, §1]

 

 

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1983–2026 · leading case: DeMello v. Home Escrow, Inc., 659 P.2d 759 (Haw. App. 1983).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
DeMello v. Home Escrow, Inc., 659 P.2d 759 (Haw. App. 1983). · cites it 2× “In HRS § 449-1 (1976), the terms “escrow” and “escrow depository” are defined as follows: (3) “Escrow” means any transaction affecting the title to real property, including leaseholds, proprietary leaseholds, and condominiums, in which a person not a party to the transaction and…”
Yamaguchi v. Title Guar. Escrow Servs., Inc, 587 P.3d 682 (Haw. 2026). · cites it 20× “See also HRS § 449-1 (2013) (stating that acts by an escrow depository are to be performed “in accordance with the terms of the agreement between the parties to the transaction”); and HRS § 449-16 (explaining that an escrow depository “shall 6 *** FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S…”
Thomas Capital Investments v. Fid. Nat'l Title & Escrow of Hawaii, 553 P.3d 924 (Haw. App. 2024). · cites it 2× “HRS § 449-1 (2013) (emphases added). 5 NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST'S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER The parties to the transaction were Sellers and Miyahara, not TCI.”
Yamaguchi v. Title Guar. Escrow Servs., Inc., 557 P.3d 909 (Haw. App. 2024). “Title Guaranty was thus an escrow depository under Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 449-1 (2013). On September 14, 2013, in Japan, Yamaguchi signed a Sales Contract to buy a unit in the Project for $1,182,800.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.