The state-owned Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has been accused of forcing a home owner whose property was destroyed by a leaking main to take her case for compensation to trial.
Less than three months after the Privy Council held a similar lawsuit should not have been appealed, “as it was bound to fail,” a High Court judge expressed similar sentiments in a judgment in which she awarded the home owner $1.2 million.
That figure is likely to balloon to closer to $2 million as the judge also ordered a total of six per cent – three in special damages and three in general damages – covering the period January 9, 2009-March 20, 2023, plus costs.
In her ruling on Monday, Justice Joan Charles held WASA liable for negligence and nuisance for the destruction of Janet Bernard Rousseau’s home at Upper Pashley Street, Success Village, Laventille.
Rousseau was represented by attorney Keith Scotland and Karine Dookie. Robin Otway and Summer Sandy represented WASA.
“I am of the view that the defendant should not have forced the claimant to take this case to trial, given that it was more than likely that her house had been destroyed as a result of the defendant’s leaking water main,” Charles said in her decision.
The $933,461 in special damages represented the cost of replacing Rousseau’s home and the cost of the survey reports. For breach of statutory duty for failing to repair a burst water main which destroyed the house, WASA was ordered to pay $120,000. For nuisance, WASA was ordered to pay $150,000.
In her ruling, the judge said from the reports submitted to the court, the leaking broken main caused water to seep into and saturate the soil under Rousseau’s home, leading to the destruction of the house.
“None of the evidence adduced by the defendant was able to weaken the claimant’s case that her house had been destroyed by water leaking onto her property from the defendant’s water main,” the judge said, describing WASA’s evidence was of “little or no value.”
According to the evidence, in 2003, Rousseau finished building her home, but soon after, cracks began appearing in the walls.
At the same time, a water main on Morgan Lane broke, and the water seeped into Rousseau’s land.
She wrote several letters to WASA complaining about the burst water main and the fact that water was seeping into her property, damaging her house.
WASA acknowledged receipt of her complaint and told her it had addressed her concern by repairing a burst main in Arima. The reference to Arima was an error, WASA said in its defence.
A structural engineer reported the damage to her house was not repairable, and the saturated soil was found beneath her house and the road.
Rousseau continued to complain to WASA and in 2007, the pipeline was eventually repaired, but not before it had already caused “irreparable damage.”
A valuation report said the collapse of the building was “imminent.”
The judge said, “In determining that water from the defendant’s mains was responsible for the destruction of the claimant’s house, I took
