59 Haw. at 35-36, 575 P.2d at 472-73. 5 . The factors favoring adherence to principles of stare decisis include "considerations of certainty and the equal treatment of similarly situated litigants.” Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 257, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 1596, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970) (Black, J., dissenting). When addressing a second appeal in the same case, overruling the decision reached in the first appeal will not result in disparate treatment of similarly situated litigants. 6 .The fact that the composition of the court has changed since Ross I was decided, although in and of itself not a sound reason to reconsider that decision, is not a bar to reconsideration •under the "law of the case” doctrine. Cf. Yoshizaki v. Hilo Hosp., 50 Haw. 40, 429 P.2d 829 (<HOLDING>), granting petition for reh'g of 50 Haw. 1, 427
holding that a transfer was a demotion where there was testimony that few people transferred voluntarily from jobs in the plaintiffs prior division to jobs in the plaintiffs new division  everybody viewed a transfer from the plaintiffs new division to the prior division as a promotion and the two departments had different seniority systems holding itself not bound by the opinion of another division of its own appellate district holding that when an application letter included a statement referring to the appellate division briefs the claims in the briefs were fairly presented to highest state court because the fair import of this statement was that petitioner was requesting the new york court of appeals to review the same claims that were advanced in the appellate division holding that reconsideration of the correctness of property division was barred on appeal from the judgment enforcing that division holding that change in composition of the court was not a bar to a grant of rehearing particularly when there was a three to two division on the original opinion