In a legal victory that was described by its attorney as a “total home run,” the Kaua‘i Springs bottled water company was granted three permits by 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe yesterday in a strong rebuke of obstacles put up by the Kaua‘i County Planning Commission.

Kaua‘i Springs owner Jim Satterfield, who attended the proceeding with some 10 family members, said that he was almost “moved to tears” by the decision and categorized it as a “huge success.”’

Watanabe, who said she was happy that Satterfield was in the courtroom to witness her ruling, decided the Planning Commission had “exceeded its jurisdiction” and was “clearly erroneous” in originally denying the Class IV, zoning and special permits to the company last year.

In addition to deeming those permits approved, Watanabe issued a permanent injunction that will prevent the Planning Commission from taking any further action against Kaua‘i Springs.

Kaua‘i Springs was forced to shut down for a period of some four months in early 2007, according to Satterfield, between the Planning Commission’s denial of the permits in January and Watanabe’s approval of a preliminary injunction in May.

Ever since the injunction was granted, allowing the company to stay in business while the merits of the case were being hashed out, Kaua‘i Springs was “operating under a cloud,” said attorney Robert Thomas of Honolulu firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert.

“They turned the heat up so bad we almost evaporated,” said a clearly relieved Satterfield.

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(Source: Michael Levine, Kauai Garden Island News)