OVERFLOW OF RIVERS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1920, Page 4

OVERFLOW OF RIVERS

LANDOWNEHS' %lIGHTS. DUNEDIN, Nov. 18. A cablegram from London states that the Privy Council have dismissed the NeW Zealand appeal case, Gerrard versus Crowe and another, with costs. This case was heard at Invercargill, in October, 1917, before Air Justice Sim. Air W. Alacalister (Crown Prosecutor) appeared for the plaintiff, and Air Solomon, K.C., with Mr Lillicrap, for the defendant. The parties were occupiers of property on either side of the Oreti river. Judgment ffeiit for the plaintiff, the judge holding that the defendant would have been free from liability bad the Wall brieri on the bank of the river, but that as the bank was some distance from tlit margin of the river, be was responsible. The ease went to the Court of Appeal in April, 1918, and, came before tho Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), and Air Justice Cooper, Air Justice Chapman, and Air Justice Hosking. The appeal was upheld, the majority of the Court holding that the defendant was justified in law in acting as he did. - Air Justice Hosking dissented from the judgment upon the ground" that the defendant had,under the .circumstances, no legal right to protect himself at the expense of his neighbour. The plaintiff then appealed to the Privy Council, and the cablegram shows that the judgment of the Court of Appeal is upheld. The decision of the Privy Council is . of great importance, because it definitely settles the serious question of whether a> dweller on the bank bf a river which is in the habit of overflowing in no regular channels,, can, by building a-/(vail on his own property to save himself from the consequence of such oyerflow, cast upon his neighbour’s land to his neighbour’s loss, water which would otherwise cbtne upori his own land. It can he readily imagined that'This decision, bestowing such a right, must cause a considerable amount of apprehension, ol' at any rate, anxiety, amongst the dwellers on lands that are periodically liable to flooding, such as parts of the Taieri Plain.