Crown Should Meet Some Costs In Land Sales Appeal Cases

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 32, 31 August 1949, Page 5

Crown Should Meet Some Costs In Land Sales Appeal Cases

Where a farmer is selling land and his price has been considerably reduced by the Land Sales Court, forcing him to take the case on appeal to court, and he succeeds in winning his case, then costs should be charged against the Crown and not the farmer, is the contention of the Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers, revealed at the quarterly meeting at Matata. Such a case had been recently experienced at Te Puke where a farmer had agreed to sell his land at a certain price and the prospective buyer had agreed to tne price, declared Mr F. Wolsey (Te Puke). The land valuation department had stated that the land was not worth what was asked and the farmer had taken the case to court. He had won a higher price but the case had chewed up the profits. Mr Wolsey thought that at least part of the costs in such a case should be a charge against the Crown. Mr W. F. McClinchie (Omokoroa) remarked that tiiere had been similar cases in both the North and South Islands where formers had won costs against the Crown. The president, Mr S. A. Welis (Katikati) thought '.hat if a precedent had been created then the farmer was justified in appealing for costs.