A LEAKING ROOF

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 56, 30 November 1921, Page 7

A LEAKING ROOF

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

A leaking roof in a house built at Kelburn in June, 1918, resulted in a civil action being brought before. Mr. Justice Sim, Acting-Chief Justice, in the Supreme Court yesterday. The plain.iff was John Harding, warehouseman, Wellington (for whom Mr.-Ward appeared), and the defendants were McLean and Gray, contractors, of Wellington (represented by Mr. I). is. Smith. Charles Li'iinock and Robert Sanders, trading as the Dominion Concrete Tile Company (Mr. Evans), were joined as third parties. Plaintiff claimed the sum 0f.£166 7s. sd„ in addition to .El 07 12s. 7d. he had retained in connection with the contract price for the erection of his house. _ The plaintiff said that the original specifications were prepared, 'he bdieved, by McLean, and owing to the difficulty of getting the slate tiles provided for, it was agreed to use Ules from the Dominion Concrete Tile Company. McLean guaranteed them. From the very start the roof was unsatisfactory, and commenced to leak. Despite repairs, it continued to leak, and an architect had informed him that the roof would have to be stripped). The building had been damaged by the continued wetting. He had no complaint about the house except the roof. McLean had said ho would guarantee him a watertight roof. John Sydney Swan, architect, said he ; had examined the house. The inside * of the roof had been blocked in many places with cement and pitch, in an endeavour to fix the leaks. After, three years this had not been successful, and in his opinion the house should be reroofed. For the defence George Archibald McLean', surviving partner of Mac Lean and Gray, said it was agreed that Dominion Concrete Tilo Company s tiles should bo used, but he did not give a guarantee. TIIO roof wus constructed according to plan. Tie had always forwarded complaints made by plaintiff to Pinnock. Everything had been done to the roof by the Concrete Tile Company. Christopher Pinnock, contractor, Wellington, said he was one of the partners in the Dominion Concrete Tile Co. The company was in business for eighteen months, and went out of business in ID!!). This had nothing to do with defects in the tiles. The company had put tiles on ninety roofs in Wellington, and in only two instances (including the present case) had they proved unsatisfactory. In the building under consideration the trouble had been a leakage at the hips. To his mltuTlKe roof was too flat, and the . water did not get away quicklv enough. Driving, rain blow in through the joints. The roof was finished in October. 1918, and ho last repaired it on December 17, 1919.“ Ho heard nothing more until this year, and never received letters from McLean and Gray in 1920. Mdst of the defects he attended to wore inV-be hips. He men- < tioned to plaintiff that his firm, was about to make wider hip tiles, and if allowed ho would put them on. Plaintiff said he would not wait. They therefore adopted galvanised iron, and he thought that the cracks in the roof were due to tho expansion nnd contraction of the iron. He was snro he could remedy the defect if given an opportunity, and could make a good job of it. His Honour reserved decision.