Supreme Court CLAIM OVER HAYBARN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29938, 27 September 1962, Page 11

Supreme Court CLAIM OVER HAYBARN

Appeal Decision Reserved Mr Justice Henry reserved his decision yesterday on an appeal by a farming company against a Magistrate’s decision allowing a builder’s claim for the cost of a new haybom which blew aw,ay in a nor’wester. Randolph Downs, Ltd., a farming company, of Amberley (Mr J. R. Woodward) appealed against a Magistrate's decision allowing a claim by Charles D. Rudd, building contractors (Mr R. J. de Goldi) against the company for £l7O, the cost of a hay barn. The Magistrate had disallowed the farming company’s counter-claim for the value of hay ruined after the barn was blown away and for the cost of temporary protection for the salvaged hay. Blown Away Mr Woodward said the haybarn, comprising a corrugated iron roof on 12 larch poles, was built on February 1, 1961, and was blown away in a nor’wester on April 1 the same year. The Magistrate had found that Rudd had built a haybarn which was strong enough to stand up to anything but a freak wind. Mr Woodward submitted that the Magistrate had been wrong in accepting evidence about the barn’s construction from a man who was an expert in housebuilding but had never built a haybarn in his life. The specified depth to which the poles were to be sunk was 3ft 6in. said Mr Woodward, and Mr J. R. Smith had given evidence as an expert that the poles had been at that depth—judging by earthmarks on fallen poles and the results of probing the depth of the poles two months later. Depth Of Poles

Mr Woodward submitted that a surveyor’s evidence showing only two poles to have reached the required depth and two others to have been less than lit in the ground should have been preferred because of the reliability of his method of calculation.

He submitted that if Smith’s method of calculation was applied to the diagram of the barn it would show the roof to be Ift 10jin lower in some places than others, giving a ripple effect to the line of the roof. A farm buildings expert from Lincoln College had corroborated the surveyor's findings, addirtg that if all poles had been in 3ft 6in holes, the barn should have withstood a 53 m.p.h. wind—the strength of the strongest gust recorded at Harewood that day. Mr de Goldi submitted that the contract documents made the depth of the holes for the poles dependent on the level of. the section. The site was not level, and the responsibility for levelling it was not the builder's.

Requirements Of Contract Faced with a site that was not level, he was relieved of the responsibility to place most of the poles at the specified depth of 3ft 6in. Furthermore, it had not been established that failure to sink the poles to that depth had led to the destruction of the barn. Mr de Goldi said the six poles which remained standing, plus two found to have been in 3ft Bin holes, were evidence that the minimum requirement of the contract had been complied with. Mr de Goldi said the Lincoln College expert had agreed that if earth marks were visible on the fallen poles, then Smith’s method of gauging the depth of the holes was the most direct and reliable. The surveyor had agreed with that. His case was that the barn was destroyed by a gust of wind of unusual violence or turbulence, and that there was no causal link between the depth of the pole holes and the ultimate destruction of the bam.

Discharge From Bankruptcy Jacob Schriek, of Hornby, was discharged from bankruptcy by Mr Justice Richmond in the Supreme Court yesterday. Shriek was represented by Mr R. J. de Goldi, and the Official Assignee (Mr O. T. Grattan) did not oppose the discharge.