A Honolulu personal injury attorney who has criticized Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto for poor upkeep of numerous vacant Kahala homes filed a lawsuit yesterday against the real estate tycoon on behalf of a Ma'ili woman who said she was injured by debris from a Kawamoto property.

Attorney Richard Turbin, who lives next to a property owned by Kawamoto on Kahala Avenue, said Deborah Kekuawela Ramirez injured her back, knee and elbow after tripping and falling over pieces of a broken wall and palm fronds on the sidewalk area fronting a Kawamoto home on March 30. The suit did not specify damages being sought.

Turbin, in the complaint, alleges that Ramirez suffered severe and permanent physical injuries, emotional distress and lost wages (past and present) as a result of negligence by Kawamoto.

The suit also alleges that Kawamoto tore down walls on many of his Kahala Avenue homes to depress area property values that would allow him to buy more homes at reduced market prices.

"He's just had a devastating effect on the community," Turbin said in an interview. "Kahala is in jeopardy."

An attempt to reach Kawamoto yesterday for a response was not successful.

Turbin, a Wai'alae-Kahala Neighborhood Board member, has been critical of Kawamoto, saying in January 2007 that he had asked area lawmakers to put pressure on state Department of Health officials to investigate conditions including stagnant swimming pools and remnants of walls at Kawamoto homes.

"I'm hoping that if confronted by a group of citizens making it clear that they are upset, Kawamoto will do the right thing and clean up these properties," Turbin said at the time.

Other area residents also have complained about the condition of some Kawamoto properties that have graffiti, overgrown landscaping and swimming pools filled in with dirt.

The enigmatic real estate investor acquired about 20 homes on Kahala Avenue mostly between 2002 and 2006 for close to $115 million, according to property records. His spree followed the sale of most of the roughly 160 O'ahu homes he had bought in the 1980s — a selloff that triggered public concern over displacing such a large number of renters.

In October 2006, Kawamoto announced a plan to rent up to 10 of his homes to needy Hawaiian families, and said the plan would include filling in swimming pools and knocking down walls or fences to make the homes safer for small children and to give the tony neighborhood a less-exclusive atmosphere.

Kawamoto last year provided three homes to Hawaiian families for free, but didn't follow through on moving five more families into other homes as he had said he would.

In April, Kawamoto faxed a statement that said he halted his charitable plan because of a complaint to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging that he discriminated by providing homes to Native Hawaiians.

Even though HUD ruled late last year that federal fair housing law didn't apply because Kawamoto provided the homes rent-free, Kawamoto said the event caused him emotional trauma.

"As soon as I resolve my emotional feelings, I hope to continue and re-energize this Kahala Ave. Mission including the Hawaiian Homeless Relief Project ... and landscaping all of my 22 properties' front yards," Kawamoto said in the statement.

In a statement Kawamoto faxed in May, he reiterated his hope to resume his charitable project but added that he received legal advice that he could be subject to similar discriminatory charges if he moved in more families.

In the lawsuit filed yesterday, Ramirez said she tripped over debris outside Kawamoto's house at 4332 Kahala Ave., a home that was one of the initial eight homes Kawamoto had prepared for tenants early last year.

Ramirez, a Native Hawaiian grant writer, said she was visiting Kawamoto homes because she wanted to help him with his charitable plan, but now believes he has harmed the Kahala neighborhood and degraded Hawaiians with negative stereotyping.

"If his property continues to be in this state of repair, who knows what else can happen to people," she said.