It was interesting to read the perspective of attorney Larry Lee (Island Voices, Oct. 10) on whether a special session should be called in regard to the Superferry issue.

What Lee fails to acknowledge is that it was rulings of the courts (Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza on Maui and U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gillmor on O'ahu) that encouraged both the Superferry and the state to move forward with their plans to bring a new transportation option to the residents of the Islands.

In July 2005, Judge Cardoza threw out a lawsuit brought by environmentalists demanding a full and lengthy environmental review before the ferry service was to begin. In September, 2005, Judge Gillmor dismissed an environmental lawsuit against the Superferry, clearing the way for the company to move forward on financing and to plan service in 2007.

The courts did their job, and the players moved forward.

Two years later, the Hawai'i Supreme Court heard oral arguments in opposition, and within hours overturned the decisions of the two judges. Had the Supreme Court ruled within hours of the initial rulings, there would have been time to manage the situation. Instead, the high court allowed the investment of millions of dollars to occur, and at the last minute ruled in opposition. Not that the case was presented days before the service was to begin — the case sat on the docket for two years. The Supreme Court dropped the ball, and now there is a struggle.

To say that the state and Superferry gambled with the outcome is erroneous. Both the state and Superferry moved forward based on court rulings. The problem here is that the Supreme Court delayed making a public decision for two full years. There is no excuse for that. While a spokeswoman for the Judiciary noted that both sides asked for and were granted extensions totaling roughly 40 days, a decsion still could have been made more than a year ago.

The current situation is caused by a failure of the Supreme Court to make a timely decision.

Failure to issue timely decisions is a longstanding issue at the Hawai'i Supreme Court. In November 2003, a series of reports by Advertiser reporter Lynda Arakawa exposed that the Supreme Court was taking as long as five years to decide on issues before it. As a result and prompted by complaints from constituents, Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-50th (Kailua, Mokapu), introduced a bill in the 2004 legislative session to place a time limit on the amount of time the Supreme Court could take to issue a decision. Passing that bill would have helped to avoid the current situation. No one can deny that a timely decision by the Supreme Court would have allowed time to correct the issues before implementation of the ferry service.

Legislators need to use a special session to respond to the delayed action by the Supreme Court to correct the inequities in court rulings regarding the implementation of the Superferry, and use a regular session, with all its checks and balances to fix the problems with the Supreme Court for the benefit of all of the citizens of Hawai'i.

Angela A. Chinen is a Kailua resident. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.