$80 Million Settlement for 32 Survivors of Decades of Sexual Abuse at Kamehameha Schools

For more than two decades, boys referred to a school-contracted psychiatrist in Honolulu were sexually assaulted by him, sometimes in his office at St. Francis Hospital, sometimes at private locations. Dr. Robert Browne served simultaneously as chief of psychiatry at St. Francis and as a therapist under contract to Kamehameha Schools. The abuse began in 1958 and continued into the mid-1980s. Browne reached students through the school's disciplinary and counseling referral process, then exploited the therapeutic authority that role gave him over adolescent boys.

Browne died by suicide in 1991 after a former student confronted him. In the years that followed, two of the men who eventually joined the civil lawsuit, Christopher Conant and Edward Kaula, also died by suicide before the case was resolved. The 32 surviving plaintiffs were men in their 50s and 60s by the time they came forward formally. One of them, Alika Bajo, said publicly that he had spent 40 years in shame, believing the abuse had been his own fault.

The lawsuit named Kamehameha Schools, St. Francis Medical Center, and Browne's estate. Evidence and testimony showed that school leadership had received warnings about Browne dating back to the 1960s. Former Kamehameha President Michael Chun acknowledged under questioning that he had been alerted to accusations against Browne but stated he never reported them to authorities. Plaintiffs argued that both institutions enabled the abuse through sustained inaction spanning multiple decades.

Davis Levin Livingston, with Mark Davis representing the survivors alongside co-counsel, pursued the case through two years of litigation and negotiation. The firm's theory centered on institutional responsibility: Browne had unimpeded access to students because two separate organizations, the school and the hospital, chose not to investigate or report credible warnings.

In February 2018, Kamehameha Schools agreed to an $80 million settlement. Probate Judge Mark Browning approved the deal on September 13, 2018. Kamehameha paid $65 million to survivors that October, with the remaining $15 million to follow once the cross-claims against St. Francis Medical Center were resolved.

The settlement included non-monetary terms. Kamehameha Schools agreed to operate an independently-run, anonymous hotline for reporting misconduct of any kind and established a recovery fund for medical expenses, therapy, and trauma support with no announced cap. As a further condition, Kamehameha Schools committed to pursuing a contribution claim against St. Francis Medical Center, whose own liability remained a separate dispute.