Picture Above: George Harrison's Heavenly Hana in Hawaii
When I visited Maui a few year's ago, a tour guide told me the story about George Harrison and his discovery that many locals had easements by prescription to walk over his beautiful "Heavenly Hana" estate.
Thanks to Tom Grover, here is an article about Harrison and the prescriptive easements. Here is an excerpt:
George Harrison bought a secluded 63-acre site in Nahiku along the Hana Highway 20 years ago because he was so taken with the "beauty and remoteness" of the area.
Nahiku resident Cynthia Allencastre says she will always remember Harrison for his kindness.
"We are saddened by his death. I loved him. He was so happy to see you," she said. "He made you feel comfortable."
"He was really kind, open and hospitable."
Allencastre said she met Harrison and his family through her husband Arnold who was a bulldozer operator and helped in clearing the land on Harrison's estate when the former Beatle first moved to Nahiku in the early 1980s.
She said Harrison hired local residents to care for his estate and employed a lot of Nahiku people.
The Allencastres were invited occasionally to lunch at Harrison's home, and Harrison spent several New Year's Eves with them, playing guitar with their younger relatives and singing Beatle and Hawaiian songs.
Allencastre said whenever Harrison would come to Nahiku, he would call her husband and invite him over to talk with him and catch up with what was happening in the neighborhood.
She said Harrison didn't talk much about himself, "he'd want to know how our family was," she said.
Maui resident and entertainment promoter Shep Gordon said Harrison was a part of a music generation and touched many with his music.
"It was just his great songs, great music," Gordon said.
But Harrison's life on Maui was not without controversy.
For 10 years he was embroiled in a fight with some neighbors to maintain his privacy.
His low-key life was sometimes disrupted by people going to the shoreline and by others trying to catch a glimpse of the ex-Beatle.
Some neighbors sued the entertainer in 1991, claiming they had the right to use a 10-foot easement running across his property to the shoreline.
In 1993 then-Circuit Judge E. John McConnell sided with the neighbors and two Maui men filed a defamation lawsuit against Harrison for remarks he made after the hearing.
Harrison appealed McConnell's decision and last year, the Hawaii Supreme Court ordered a new trial.
Harrison said he chose the secluded site because it was difficult to reach and his deed didn't include an easement.
Coming to his defense was lifelong resident and sometimes Nahiku mayor "Uncle" Manuel Vares who said during the controversy that Harrison and his wife were "nice people" who didn't bother anybody.
Vares said it wasn't right that people wanted to go by the former Beatle's house on a pedestrian path as close as 60 feet from Harrison's bedroom window.
A secret settlement in the 10-year battle over the beach path was reached June 7, this year, allowing no one the right to cross Harrison's property, his lawyer said.
