A federal judge has named Applied Technology Corp. as the structural engineering firm that will examine the Forbes Cave on the Big Island, where priceless Hawaiian artifacts are believed to have been placed by the group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra has ruled that 83 artifacts buried in two Big Island caves must be returned to the Bishop Museum. Museum officials loaned the items to the nonprofit, but Hui Malama said they returned what they deem as funerary objects to the caves from which they were looted by westerners in 1905. Two other Native Hawaiian groups sued Hui Malama and the museum for the return of the objects pending resolution of a dispute about their final resting place.

Ezra ordered the examination of the cave by an engineer after Hui Malama's masonry contractor filed an affidavit stating that he sealed one of the caves with a concrete wall. George W. "Billy" Fields III warned that reopening the cave could cause its collapse and would be a danger to those involved.

Applied Technology is headed by Alfred Yee. Ezra ordered each group to submit recommendations for structural engineers. Applied Technology was on the lists submitted by Hui Malama's opponents and the museum.