SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 292, 29 August 1918, Page 8

SUPREME COURT

LAND IN WILLIS STREET CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION The third day's hearing of tho compensation claim brought by. the Dulto Buildings, Ltd., against the City Corporation for land taken in respect to street widening in Willis Street was taken in the Supremo Court yesterday, before His Honour ill 1 . Justice Hosting and two assessors, Mr. G. 11. Scales tieing for the claimants and Mr. C. i>. iionson, K.C., for the City Corporation.

Air, if. Myers, with him Mr. G. Watson, appeared for tho l)uko Buildings, Ltd., and Mr. A. Gray, K.U., with bin. ilr. J. O'Shea, City Solicitor, for tho City Corporation.

The statement of claim set out that for the land taken tho cainoanv claimed £2530. and claimed a further sum of £9210 for severance., loss of revenue, ctc.. tho total claim being for £11,740. When the hearing was resumed yesterday, His Honour called Mr. .Myers's attention to tho fact- that no evideuco had been given as to the value of tho building on the land taken, and if tho Court Jiad no -evirfciwe the matter would be ignored wheal making tho award.

Richard Dwyer, in cross-examination by Mr. O'Shea, stated that after six o'clock closing camo in the rent was fixed at £50 a week. The taking' of the land by the Corporation was also taken into consideration.' Under the leaso of 1915, he paid £70 10s. per week, exclusive of the tobacconist shop, and he was paying £57, exclusive of the tobacconist's shop, a reduction of £13 10s.

Joseph Dvryer, licensee of the Midland Hotel, said that when alterations were going on the profits of the bar trade went down by 50 per cent. He did not think the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel could carry on a boarding establishment wliilo alterations were in progress. In an hotel a bar trade without a substantial boarding establishment, was not satisfactory, because it was necessary to employ almost as large a stafY, and the profits of the bar would have to go to pay the extra staff. This applied more particularly to city hotels. A boarding establishment was an asset to an hotel.

To Mr. Gray, witness said 'tlie Midland Hotel did not depend so much on the bar trade as did the D.uke of Edinburgh, but be could not carry ou tho Midland without a bar without raising the hoarding tariff very considerably.

This closed the case for the claimant company. Mr. J. O'Shea, in opening, produced a plan showing the. position of Sections 6, 7, 8, and 9 fronting Willis Street, as they existed when notice was given by the Corporation to acquire the land for street-widening purposes. Notice to {aire the land was given mi February 12, 1913. Mr. O'Shea then went into details regarding the land acquired by the Corporation, giving particulars ttf <the compensation paid in each case, and how the respective owners were dealt'with. In two or three cases the entire property was purchased by the Corporation; in others compensation was paid by agreement-, and in some cases the awards s wore fixed by the Court. Mr. O'Shea, ■ continuing, then claimed .in the case betterment in respect to Lot 6, which 3 would be brought into lino with the \ other sections, and would so benefit ) lands remaining in the hands of thr t claimants. Lot 7 also, whereon thi ! hotel stood,-would be bettered by tin . general effect of the street widening ; The tram lino; was now about two fee ' from the footpath, and under the street widening scheme this would bn vastl; | improved. The result of tho.widening [ would be to, give the claimants a front ; ago of 6ft. liin. by 54ft. Sin., in Willi: Street, and diminish the frontage oi t Manners Street by 12ft. 4in. on tin f anglo by 80ft. 6in. deep. The . Willi: ■ Streot frontage was the more valuable ! No case of land sold in Manners Streo ; had been shown to exceed £185 pei , foot> notwithstanding the greate: i depth of those sections. He contended ! therefore, that £140 per foot was thi | greatest value that could be placed oi tho 12ft. 4in. x 80ft. Gin. lost bj claimants at the back of Manner: J Street,_ while iOwing to the bettormon 1 ! tho gain of 6ft. llin. in Willis Stred was wortli £250 per foot. Had th< Corporation reduced the frontage ir t Willis Street, the claimants woulc , i have beon entitled to claim for tho losi ■ because it was on tho better street 1 and ho contended that vice versa th< Corporation had a right to take intc consideration the fact that tho Willis Street frontage would bo increased bj tho street-widening scheme. Ho alsc submitted that the calculations as tc profits were elusive. Tho'se who gav( evidence gavo m'crely opinions, and produced no books and gave no facts. Under such oonditions it was possible tc lix any value. He contended that the utmost the claimants wero entitled tc was tho value of tho land and tho value of tho building on that part of the land and no more. He regarded this as tic high-water mark of compensation claims, at all events in his experience of fourteen years. With regard to the reconstruction of the building, Mr. O'Shea said that he wrote to the solicitors of the company asking that the company submit plans of tho proposed alterations, so that they may be examined by the Corporation officers, but lie was unablo to obtain these. " The Corporation instructed Messrs. Atkins, Bacon, and Mitchell to prepare plans for tlie reconstruction of the buildings, and these plans had been submitted to competent persons with a knowledge of hotel property, and had been approved. Those plans had not been submitted to tho othor side, because they had stood at arm's length, and apparently wished to submit the oase to tho Court in its worst form, that is, showing $ie building in its mutilated form. Mr:. O'Shea then explained in detail the improvements that would result if the plans prepared by the Corporation's architects wero put into effect. The general items of betterment were tho increase of 6ft. llin. on the Willis Strcot front, the securing of more light and air, and tho hotter arrangements for pedestrian traffic round tho corner from Willis Street into Manners Street. Ho contended that tho southern side of Manners Street was more, valuable than the other side, becauso the flow of traffic was on that side. Since tho widening of Willis Street a fair amount of this trallio had been diverted to the other side, and this would increase when the widening of Willis Street was completed. The taking of land and making the strcot had an immediate effect on tho value of the property for its betterment. The reduction of tho rental of the hotel that had been referred to was, he pointed out, brought about by six o'clock closing, and not by the taking of this land. Mr. O'Shea pointed out that tho not claim was for £11,740—that was for about one-ninth of the land the Corporation was taking, which mado the actnal value of the land about £110,000, which was absurd. Taking tho value of tho piece of land placed on it by tho claimants, then an acre of land in that neighbourhood would be worth one million sterling. His Honour: How much does that work out per square inch? Mr. O'Shea: I have not calculated, that, Your Honour. ' Continuing, Mr. O'Shea said that the Corporation had endeavoured to

1 present a fair case, while they had to meet ail exaggerated claim. 1 Cyril H. Mitchell, architect, eaid ho was a member of the firm of Atkios, Bacon and Mitchell. He hid been an architect far about nine years. His firm was instructed to prepare plans in connection with the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, and his instructions were to Jo the best in the interests of the owner and lessee, as though ho were working for them. Ho submitted two sohemes, ono of which was^.considered better than the other, and the plans wero in Court. The witness then dotailed what improvements would be inado in the buildings by the adoption of tho plans proposed. Cross-examined, witness said ho prepared the plans on his own ideas, and did not consult hotel people. The alterations would cost more now than they would have done when he prepared tho plans in April last year. Alfred Atkins, architect, a member of the firm of Atkins, Bacon and Mitchell, said he had been in practice as .an architect in New Zealand for about 38 years, and had designed several hotels, including the Rutland Hotel and Foster's Hotel, at Wnngamii. He had collaborated with his partner Mit-. chell in the preparations" of the plan for alterations to the Dulto of Edin burgh Hotel. Ho thought tho plans prepared, if carried out, would improve the "hotel. Tho instructions to the firm wore to prepare plans as though instructions had been received from the owners, and to endeavour in tho alterations to place the owners in as good a position as they wero in now. At this stage the hearing of the case was adjourned until this rooming.