Greene v McInnes

[2013] QDC 207

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Greene v McInnes [2013] QDC 207

PARTIES:

GEOFFREY WILLIAM GREENE
(plaintiff)

v

MICHAEL WILLIAM McINNES
(first defendant)

and

THANYAPORN SUPPAPAHOL
(second defendant)

FILE NO/S:

BD 4998/11

DIVISION:

PROCEEDING:

Trial

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

29 November 2013

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

3, 4 October 2012, 28 March 2013

JUDGE:

McGill SC DCJ

ORDER:

Judgment that the defendants pay the plaintiff $27,643, including interest of $2,643.  Injunctions in terms to be finalised.

CATCHWORDS:

TRESPASS TO LAND – Excavations for retaining wall across common boundary – wall straddles boundary  - whether agreement - damages – exemplary damages.
DAMAGES – Trespass to land – excavation for retaining wall across common boundary – wall straddles boundary – loss of land area – reinstatement costs – consequential loss – violation of property rights – exemplary damages.
TORRENS SYSTEM – Encroachment – retaining wall built across common boundary – whether drain pipe and drainage gravel encroachment.

Property Law Act 1974 ss 179, 180, 182, 185.

Barbagallo v J & F Catalan Pty Ltd [1986] 1 Qd R 245 – cited.
Carr v Sourlos (1994) 6 BPR 13, 626 – cited.
Carver v Hill [2010] QDC 401 – cited.
Dasreet Pty Ltd v Hawchar (2011) 243 CLR 588 – cited.
Davey v Harrow Corporation [1958] 1 QB 60 – cited.
Gartner v Kidman (1962) 108 CLR 12 – cited.
Gazzard v Hutchinson (1995) Aust Torts Reports 81-337 – applied.
Gray v Motor Accident Commission (1998) 196 CLR 1 – cited.
Hansen v Gloucester Developments Pty Ltd [1992] 1 Qd R 14 – applied.
Morgan v Khyatt [1964] 1 WLR 475 – cited.
Pietruszkiewicz v Whitfort [2003] QDC 577 - considered
Plenty v Dillon (1991) 171 CLR 635 – applied.
Stereff v Rycen [2010] QDC 117 – cited.
Tallon v Metropolitan TowersBUP5157 [1997] 1 Qd R 102 – applied.
Thiess Pty Ltd v Arup Pty Ltd [2012] QSC 131 – cited.
Uren v John Fairfax and Sons Pty Ltd (1966) 117 CLR 118 – cited.
WAQ v Di Pino [2012] QCA 283 applied.
XL Petroleum (NSW) Pty Ltd v Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd (1985) 155 CLR 448 – applied.

COUNSEL:

P J Baston for the plaintiff (2012); plaintiff in person (2013)

J A Sheean for the defendants

SOLICITORS:

Provest Law (2012).  The plaintiff was not represented in 2013.

McKelvey & Hu for the defendants.

1. The plaintiff and the defendants are neighbours in a particular street where the land slopes downhill from the plaintiff’s land to the defendants’ land, and to some extent downhill from the back of the plaintiff’s land to the street frontage. 

History of the proceeding

1. On 8 December 2011 the plaintiff filed a claim and statement of claim in this court seeking a declaration that, as a result of the defendants’ demolition of a boulder wall between their properties, the defendants had withdrawn the natural support of the plaintiff’s land by that wall, part of the plaintiff’s land had subsided, and there was…