(Antigua and Barbuda) The Board was asked as to the damages to be awarded after the defendant had built a wall which encroached on the claimant’s land and appropriated some 455 square feet. Aggravated damages had been awarded. The court was asked whether the damages should reflect the increase in value of the defendant’s property rather than the strict value of the land itself.
Held: This was not an occasion when the building of the wall had been accompanied by high handed or other reprehensible behaviour, and aggravated damages were not justified.
Tthe proper starting point was the value of the land encroached upon, which was assessed at $30 per square foot, totalling $13,650. However, the judge was right to take into account the extent to which the piece of land encroached upon had enhanced the amenities of the respondent’s own house. By building his wall on the appellant’s land and thereby (permanently) incorporating a piece of the appellant’s land into his garden, the respondent had given the expropriated land a value to himself considerably in excess of its value simply as 455 square feet of an undeveloped plot. The proper question to ask was how much the appellant could reasonably have sought from the respondent as the price of the land incorporated wrongly into his garden. The value to the respondent of the land as part of his garden would have been at least double its value as an undeveloped plot.
Judges:
Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Mance
Citations:
[2006] UKPC 3, [2006] 1 EGLR 75, (2006) 22 Const LJ 187, [2006] 15 EG 136
Links:
Cited by:
Cited – Star Energy Weald Basin Ltd and Another v Bocardo Sa SC 28-Jul-2010
The defendant had obtained a licence to extract oil from its land. In order to do so it had to drill out and deep under the Bocardo’s land. No damage at all was caused to B’s land at or near the surface. B claimed in trespass for damages. It now . .
Cited – Ramzan v Brookwide Ltd ChD 8-Oct-2010
The claimant owned a flying freehold room butting into the defendant’s property. Whilst the claimant’s property was unoccupied, the defendant broke through into the room, blocked off the door to the claimant’s property, and included the room in the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commonwealth, Land, Damages
Updated: 05 July 2022; Ref: scu.238310
