Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa v. Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei

MEMORANDUM *

Defendant-Appellant Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai’i Nei (“Hui Malama”) appeals an order of the district court granting Plaintiffs Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa and Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts’s (collectively “Plaintiffs”) motion for a preliminary injunction. The injunction requires Hui Malama to return certain funerary objects to Defendant-Appellee Bishop Museum, or to cause them to be returned to the museum. We stayed the injunction pending the outcome of this interlocutory appeal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 and we affirm the district court and vacate the stay.

We review for abuse of discretion a district court’s order granting a preliminary injunction. Sw. Voter Registration Educ. Project v. Shelley, 344 F.3d 914 , 918 (9th Cir.2003) (en banc). Our review is “limited and deferential.” Id. The district court abuses its discretion when it applies an incorrect legal standard, misapprehends the law in its initial assessment of the merits of the case, or, relies on clearly erroneous findings of fact. Caribbean Marine Servs. Co. v. Baldridge, 844 F.2d 668 , 673 (9th Cir.1988). “Absent one of these errors, the district court’s decision…