DRAINAGE DISPUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 672, 25 May 1929, Page 16

DRAINAGE DISPUTE

ACTION AGAINST TOWN BOARD RESIDENT CLAIMS DAMAGES Declaring the board was being attacked because a technical requirement was overlooked, Mr. Haddow, counsel for the New Lynn Town Board and Forrest Bros., contractors. who carried out drainage works in the district, submitted his defence to Mr. Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon to a claim by Hy. Green, for £2Ol damages for trespass and injury to his land by construction of the works. While admitting that written notice of intention to lay drainage on Green’s land should have been given, counsel argued that the owner had waived his rights. In any case, he claimed, the owner’s objections were overcome by the board’s decision to take the land along the course «f the drains under the Public Works Act. The designer of the drainage scheme. Wm. Arthur Gray, engineer, described the impracticability of constructing the drain along the road owing to the cost involved, and thus the construction of manholes on private property was essential. Together with other witnesses, Chas. Webb, works foreman, and E. J. Sugden, engineer, he detailed the efforts made to meet Green’s requirements in connection with the installation. An admission was made to his Honour by Ernest Greenslade, town clerk, that no notice had been sent to Green by the council of the proposal to construct the drainage on his land, nor had the owner’s consent been obtained up to March 31. His Honour inspected the drainage works on the property at New Lynn today and legal argument will be resumed on Monday.