A BIG CLAIM

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3082, 12 May 1917, Page 14

A BIG CLAIM

OVER £11,000 COMPENSATION SOUGHT THE DUKE HOTEL CORNER ' A claim of some importance wits heard by the Compensation Court yesterday. Duke BuildingSj Ltd., sought to obtain from the /Wellington City Corporation the sum of £11,740 as compensation for a ten-foot strip of laud to bo takeu in Willis Street from tbo ground on which tho Duke of Edinburgh Hotel stauds. Mr. Justice Edwards presided. Mr. C. B. Horison, K.C., sat as assessor for tho corporation, and Mr. A. S. Biss as assessor for the claimants. Messrs. 31. Myers and Watson appeared for the claimants and Messrs. A. Cray, K.C., and J. O'Shea for.tlio corporation.

Mr. Myers said that tho corner od which the Duko Hotel stood was a. very valuable site. It was probably tho busiest corner, by far, in tho whole city. Tho amount claimed was £11,740. Thoro was an additional item which was merely contingent. It w : as based on the assumption that the City Council might fenco oil', for instance, tho. ton-foot strip taken, and so prevent any access to tho hotel. Such a thing was, of course, unthinkable, and tho corporation was giving an undertaking that it would not prevent access. Tltis item in the claim would therefore be abandoned when tho corporation's undertaking was embodied in the award of the Court. Ono of the items in the claim was tho intrinsic value of the land, £2530. Counsel would have no difficulty in showing that that was substantially a correct assessment. A numbor of witnesses would bo called to givo their opinions, and the Court would find that the valuers, though reckoning in dilferent ways, all arrived in tho neighbourhood: of £2500. It was very difficult to value'on the Willis Street frontage alone of a property so shaped as tho one in question. One check upon the valuation was afforded by tho fact that the value of Manners Street .land in this neighbourhood was certainly not loss than £250 per foot, and ten feet wero being taken. Another item was tho cost of demolishing part of tho hotel, erecting a'new wall, and, incidentally,' making certain cellar rearrangements. Counsel would show that tho cost of that work would .not bo less than £1500. Estimates that the claimants considered independent had been obtained—ono estimate, at all events, had- been made without any knowledge that the present claim was pending. Alteration in tho bars would cost £60. The disturbance of business during the period of reconstruction (estimated at about two months) was set down at £480. The rent at the present time was about £40. The land was subject to a lease to Mrs. Isaacs, who- kept the' pTaoe years ago.' • She had a twenty years' lease, running out at the end of the year. She lot the place for £15, and tho lessee paid in addition £25 per week for goodwill, and had to metft.-the charges for rates and insurance. That was not tho rontal of the whole of the premises. There was a little shop in Willis Street, for which a tobacconist paid £3 per week to Mrs. Isaacs. There was also tho bottle store of the. hotel, and for it the lossee paid' a rontal of £4 ss. per week. A fruiterer had a shop in the Manners Street frontage, and paid £3 per week for it. Tho present bottle store had for a considerable time been let to a furrier, but it had been found necessary to use the storo for its present purpose.'. At tho end of tho present year the land would bo the land of Duke Buildings, Ltd., free from any lease .whatever. The taking of the ten-foot strip would: out right through the bar, and the result would be that, in order to do anything like the present volume of business, it would he necessary to make the bottle store part of tho bar. *■

Mr. Morison: Aro wo bound to assume that after the expiration of tho lcaso the business of a hotel will be carried oil? " Mr. Myers: Yes. Tho claim is based primarily upon the fact that the, place is a hotel. Continuing, Mr. Myers said tliat tho spaco of the tobacconist's i:hop would bo very considerably reduce®. The hotel Yrtnild also loso. the equivalent of eight rooms. His Honour: It would pay you to pull down "the '-whole hotel and build another first-class place.' Mr. O'Shea: The present building cost £4000. . Mr.,Myers: Your Mr. Ames valued it at £10,000. If the corporation js prepared to rebuild the placo for us we shall ba very glad. After hearing tho evidence of si number of witnesses called. by the claimants, tho iCourt adjo'um'ect the case. Tho bearing will bo resumed on a. date to be fixed later.