Lewis (Raphael) v Attorney General for Jamaica
| Jurisdiction | Jamaica |
| Judge | Campbell J. |
| Judgment Date | 07 September 2007 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2007] 9 JJC 0701 |
| Date | 07 September 2007 |
| Court | Supreme Court (Jamaica) |
| Docket Number | CLAIM NO. HCV 00637/2004 |
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA
NEGLIGENCE - House and property - Damage by road works
(1) Historians claim that Christopher Columbus to better illustrate his description of the topography of Jamaica to his royal patrons, Ferninand and Isabella of Spain, crumpled a sheet of paper in his hand and presented it to them. It was an apt description. Jamaica is a mountainous country, although the majority of its people live on the narrow coastal strip that skirts the island, a substantial number resides, as the Claimant does, on its hilly hinterland.
(2) The majestic Blue Mountains rise to 7, 402 feet in the north-eastern section of the island, and plunges within twenty miles to the southern shoreline. On that shoreline is situated the district of Bull Bay, which is connected by roadway that runs northerly to the university district of Papine. This road straddles the lower ridges of the Blue Mountain. It is along this roadway that the Claimant Mr. Raphael Lewis' house is situated.
(3) Travelling northerly along this road to the left there is a hillside embankment, which rises steeply from the roadway, and runs for most of its length from Bull Bay to beyond the Claimant's house. On the right side of the roadway, the land descends to a river, which runs "generally alongside the road" with houses between the river and the road at points. Mr. Lewis' lives in one such house.
(4) On the 24 th March 2005, Mr. Lewis filed a claim, seeking damages for that "in or around the years 2000 to 2002, the Defendant through its servant and/or agent, the National Works Agency, whilst in the course of carrying out road works negligently, caused and or permitted damages to be done to his house and property."
(5) The Particulars of Claim alleged, inter alia;
(a) That during the course of road works, the Defendants caused works to be done adjacent to the Claimant's property, caused debris to be dumped onto adjoining property thereby blocking the drainage and caused water to ingress onto the Claimant's property and to flood it when it rained.
(b) The Defendants used the Claimant's fence as a retaining wall and raised the road level rendering the Claimant's property below road level which caused a steep downward slope into the Claimant's driveway and made it easier for the water to enter and flood the Claimant's property and into his house.
(6) The Defendants admitted that road works were conducted in years 2001 to 2002, that minor patching works were done, which involved merely filling potholes along the existing roadway. They denied dumping debris onto property adjoining the Claimant's property. They contended that Lewis' property is situated 6 to 10 meters below the roadway and water ingressing and flooding the said property is a natural and likely consequence of the location of Lewis' property. The Defendants denied raising the level of the roadway and said they were only involved in a patching exercise.
(7) The parties agreed as an item of fact that, the National Works Agency carried out road works adjacent to Lewis' property on or around 2000 to 2002.
(8) They agreed that the relevant issues were;
(a) Whether the said road works involved the raising of the road level and /or reconstruction of the road surface.
(b) Whether the said road works rendered the Claimant's property below road level.
(c) Whether the Defendant's servant and/or agent dumped debris adjacent to the Claimant's property as alleged or at all.
(d) Whether the ingress of water unto the Claimant's property when it rains is as a result of the road works undertaken by the Defendant's servant and/or agent and/ or as a result of a natural likely consequence due to the location of the Claimant's property.
Was the road level raised?
(9) Mr. Lewis stated in his witness statement that he had owned the lands from the 1960s and built his house around that time. The house consists of five bedrooms and three bathrooms, with a driveway made of concrete that goes to the car park. He said that the National Works Agency (NWA) did work during the period 2000 to 2002 and work was done on lands adjacent to his land. He alleged that the road was raised using his fence as a retaining wall which resulted in his property being...
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