COMPENSATION CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 10, 12 July 1909, Page 8

COMPENSATION CASE.

THE KARORI ROAD CLAIMS. LEGAL ARGUMENT. Dr. A. M' Arthur, S.M., s?at to-day to hear argument in the caso of It. G. H. Burn v. the Karori Borough Council. The action, which was one for compensation in respect of damage caused to plaiutilf's property, owing to the road-widening operations carried out by the- council, had previously been before the magistrate, and Messrs. J. C. M'Kerrow and Gerald Fitzgerald, silting as assesors. Claimant was awarded £30 10s damages if it was proved that he was "legally entitled to compensation." The law points involved (which have an important bearing on other claims of a similar nature against th& local authority), were reserved for subsequent argument, and it was to decide these points that the magistrate sat to-day. Mr. H. 1". yon Haast appeared for claimant, and Mr. H. Johnston for the defendant corporation. From the admitted facts it appears that the Ivarori-road was formed by the New Zealand Company as a twelve-feet wide track in the time of Sir George Grey, about 1841 or 18^2. Since that time it has been a public road, and the following authorities have successively had control of the road and have spent money upon it : — The authorities under the Provincial Statutes, the Karori-road Board, the Karori and Makara-road Board, the Wellington District Highway Board, the Karori and Makararoad Board, and the Karori Borough 1 Council, the last of which was first j constituted in 1891. Various works ' have been done upon ihe road from j time to time. The plan width of the road is 66 feet. The road both at the time the claimant purchased his land and immediately prior to the alterations of the level in respect of /which compensation is claimed, was formed and metalled for about seventeen feet in width, with a grass bank on the claimant's side and a low level leading to Park Vale-road, on the other side. There were water-tables, but no footpaths, channelling, or keibing. The road had _been repaired from time to time, as occasion required, but no comprehensive scheme of metalling had ever been adopted prior to the alteration of the level. The increase in the width of the formation had been gradual. In July, 1902, the council decided to call for tenders for fixing the levels of the principal streets, but in September, 1902, it was decided that nothing be done, as the tenders were too l»T^h, and the levels have not yet been fixed. In the meantime the tramway has been extended to Karori and the road has been widened in various places. It was admitted that the road was, and had been, at all times material to the case, a public street, and whatever had been done it had been done by local authorities having power to do so. The question the Court had to decide was whether at the time of the alteration of the levels in respect of which the claimant claimed compensation the load had been constructed in some "permanent manner" within the meaning of section 246 of the Municipal Corporations Act; 1908, by the "cumulative action of the local authorities." After hearing argument Dr. M' Arthur announced that he would give his decision on the 20th instant.