COMPENSATION COURT

Evening Star, Issue 20982, 22 December 1931, Page 8

COMPENSATION COURT

CLAIM OF BERWICK FARMERS INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF WIAPORI OPERATIONS AWARD OF £OSO MADE The award was given by the Compensation Court this afternoon in the case in which W. J. and M. H. Reid/ made a claim against the City Corpbration for £1,650 for the depreciation of the value of their farm lands at Berwick Flat, allegedly as the result of the operations of the Corporation in the erection and use of a dam on the Waipori River for the storage of water.- ' His Honour Mr Justice Kennedy presided, and the assessors were Mr M. Stevenson (for the claimants) and Mr James Begg (for the Corporation). His Honour, in announcing the award, said the claimants originally claimed £2,650 from the respondent Corporation for the injurious affection of their land. At the hearing the claim was amended by the claimants abandoning one item of their claim amounting to £I,OOO, which sum was claimed in respect of the cost of the removal and erection of the woolshed and other buildings; leaving the claimants’ amended claim standing at £1,660,- , No costs had been awarded the claimant because it was provided by tha Public Works Act that, if the compensation awarded did not exceed one-half; of the amount claimed the claimant should not ho entitled to receive any costs. ... , . . . His Honour said that for the injurious, affection of the land the court awarded’ the sum of £650, and it was declared that no costs should be awarded to either party. As president of the court His Honour, fixed the fee of each assessor at three | guineas a day for each of the nine days! upon which each assessor attended a sitting of the court.