WATER DAMAGES STOCK

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1929, Page 10

WATER DAMAGES STOCK

HAWERA SHOPKEEPERS’ CLAIM.

AWARD BY SUPREME COURT.

The claim of Sydney Philip Hart and Sarah Hart, Hawera shopkeepers, against the trustees in the estate of Theodore Espag.ne, deceased, for damage to their fancy goods stock caused through rainwater leaking through the roof, has succeeded. The reserved judgment of Mr. Justice Ostler was delivered in the _ New Plymouth Court yesterday. Plaintiffs were awarded £lB9 7s lOd and costs. The case was one in which the plaintiffs claimed damages‘for injury to their stock through water coming into the premises from the roof of an adjoining building of which the defendants were the owners, as they were also of the premises occupied by the plaintiffs. They wanted the defendants to erect a new building and to charge an increased rent. After some negotiations this was agreed to, the defendants to contribute £2OO and the plaintiffs £4OO towards the cost. Plaintiffs were to have a seven years’ lease of the premises and at the end of the. term they were to receive no compensation. The contract for the alterations was let to one Mills. After reciting certain clauses of the lease and some of the facts of the case, the judgment stated: The defendants were the owners of a block of land in High Street, Hawera, part of which was occupied by the shop included in the lease. The shop was partly in an old two-storied wooden building and partly in a single storey lean-to at the side of the twostorey building. The lean-to _ roof had three skylights in it which lighted the shop. At the lower end of the lean-to a box gutter was constructed to catch the water which fell on to the lean-to roof ana to carry it to a rainwater head which led into a downpipe which ran over the front verandah and into the street gutter. This box gutter, which was the work of Mills, had not sufficient depth to carry off exceptional falls of rain. As a result the water banked up under the edge of the iron roof and got into plaintiffs’ snop. Complaints were made by . plaintiffs to the builder, who denied liability, and also to the solicitors for the trustees, who denied liability. The question to be decided was: Are the defendants liable? "In my opinion,” said His Honour, "they are. It was clear from the lease that the defendants intended to retain control of tlfe roof of the lean-to over part of the two rooms leased. There could be no doubt that the damage done to plaintiffs’ goods was caused by the defective structure of the box gutter on the roof. Defendants were informed of this by the plaintiffs, but they denied all liability. “It was argued for the defendants that us the plaintiffs and defendants joined in contracting with Mills for the additions to the building they were equally responsible for the defect in the guttering. The plaintiffs were joined merely because they agreed to find the greater part of the cost of the building, but the building was to remain the property of the defendants. Plaintiffs were never intended to have any other status than that of lessees.” With regard to the damage claimed His Honour said the plaintiffs put in a detailed list of the goods damaged and they were not cross-examined as to that damage. His Honour said he had no means of checking, the estimate, and no justification for cutting it down, except that he thought the estimate was too high. He allowed £75 for that, which left -the assessment of damages at £lB9 7s lOd.. Judgment was therefore given for plaintiffs for £lB9 _7s lOd, with costs according to scale, witnesses’ expenses and disbursements and £l5 15s was allowed counsel for the second day of the hearing and £5 5s for other expenses. At the hearing Mr. A. K. North appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. W. H. Treadwell, Wanganui (with him Mr. R. H. Quilliam) for the defendants.

BICYCLE ROAD RACE.

FASTEST TIME FROM SCRATCH.

The Hawera Amateur Athletic Club yesterday held the third cycle road race of the. season, the weather being favourable, without wind. The course of 25 miles was from Hawera through Normanby and Okaiawa to Manaia, and back to Hawera by the South Road. The race produced a very close finish, three riders being together a quarter of a mile from the post. B. Seaver sprinted best and beat K. Foy by yards, A. Dredge, who had made the pace for most of the journey, being a similar distance away. Foy, with 10-Jmin start, took only about a minute and a-half longer _ to cover the course than did W. Stenning from scratch. Stenning made fastest time, Ihr lOmin Msec, beating the othei scratch man, R. Kelsen, by 4-ssec R. Rumball (4min) took Ihr lOmin 41bec, and C. Walker, who started with Rumball, foregoing 2min of his allotted handicap, Ihr lOmin 43sec. The officials at the start and the finish were Messrs A. Grant, H., McCabe L. Mar-tor and Lyndon. One more road race will complete the series. . The following are tho plaeings and actual riding times of yesterday s race: B Seaver (llmin), Ihr 12inm Msec 1 K Foy (lOJmin), Ihr Hmm 481 sec - A. Dredge (llmin), Ihr 12min 21sec 3 R. Rumball (4min), Ihr 10mm 41sec 4 C. Walker (4min), Ihr 10min 43sec o W. Stenning (scr), Ihr lOmin lOsec J R. Kelsen (scr), Ihr lOmin 10 4-usec 7 F. A. Gray (llmin) and E. V oollett (13m:n) also competed.