WASA to pay couple $2.2m for damaged house

THREE appellate court judges have upheld a judge’s order for the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to compensate a Princes Town couple more than $2 million for their four-storey “dream home” at Nagee Avenue, Iere Village Branch Road.

Darwin and Kamalar Sahadath’s house dropped ten feet below road level and shifted 20 feet from where it was built because of a WASA pipeline which began leaking in 2012.

In a written decision on Friday, Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Gregory Smith and Prakash Moosai held that there was insufficient basis for them to interfere with the decision of Justice Vasheist Kokaram in January.

Kokaram in his decision said he was satisfied by the couple’s evidence – which included reports by geotechnical and engineering experts – that the land slippage at the Sahadaths’ home was triggered by the leaking pipeline.

He also said there was no evidence from the authority to suggest the land slippage and damage to the house were caused by another source or heavy rainfall.

The judge also added that it was “reasonably foreseeable” that the leak from the WASA line, if not repaired within a reasonable time, would damage the road and make the subsoil vulnerable.

According to an expert’s report, the soil in the area around the couple’s house and the WASA pipeline was Talparo clay, which was prone to swelling when exposed to water.

Kokaram also found “clearly WASA was either unresponsive or unreasonably slow” to respond to the Sahadaths’ complaints.

“As a monopoly service provider of water, they owe a duty to repair the leak in a timely manner. One would expect that they would respond to the complaint of the leak within one day of the complaint being made,” the judge said.

It was WASA’s defence that the source of the leak was not from its pipeline. It also contended that the authority was not responsible for the loss, as the couple built their home on land prone to slippage.

WASA was ordered to pay the Sahadaths $2, 200,000 to reconstruct their home.

They were also ordered to be compensated for the cost of the valuation report and the geoengineering reports at $41,412.50 and the $165,000 in rent they paid when they moved out of their home. The rent also covers up to January.

The authority challenged the compensation ordered by the judge, but the Court of appeal overruled the arguments.

Mendonca, who delivered the decision, said it was not disputed that the building was in dangr of imminent collapse.

“Further, it is one thing to say there are things that may be salvaged but actually salvaging them is altogether different,” he said, adding that Kokaram’s assessment on damages could not be faulted.

Attorneys Larry Lalla and Vikash Indar Lal represented the couple, while attorneys Keston McQuilkin and Sheena Ragoobar appeared for WASA.