COUNCIL WINS CASE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 36, 26 January 1932, Page 7

COUNCIL WINS CASE

FIRE DAMAGES POWER LINES. INTERESTING JUDGMENT. Whakatane, Jan. 25. A care of interest to local bodies was decided on Saturday morning when Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., gave his reserved decision in the case Whakatane Borough Council v. W. A. Smith, in respect of an amended claim by counsel for £25 19/7, special general damages arising out of damages sustained to transmission power lines by reason of defendant lighting a fire on his property over which the power line ran. In December last defendant informed plaintiff’s agent that he proposed lighting a firo to clear certain scrub. Before tho council could send an official, however, the Are was started, and the transmission lines damaged. Counsel contended that the Public Works Act made it obligatory upon local bodies claiming damages to proceed by wav either of information or complaint, and not by ordinary summons. Tho magistrate considered there si* n common law right pre-existent to statute, nnd. moreover, that there was a breach of tho statutmi right to take care, and this alone gave the right to independent action for damages. De fondant should have previously cut tho scrub a sufficient distance from tho power linos. The manner in which the fire started showed certain negligence, inasmuch ns hv the time the firo swept towards the lines and reached them they had obtained much more substantial heat than would bo the case if the fire had been back-fired. Judgment was given for the round! for special damages as claimed, and general damages £5, together with costs. £6 16/. *