Judge rules for pawpaw farmer – but $30,000, not $3m

- File photo
- File photo

A HIGH Court judge yesterday threw out a $3.5 million claim by a Chaguanas farmer for destruction of pawpaw trees during road and drainage repairs to Soogrim Trace in 2012.

Justice Frank Seepersad found that instead, for 1,600 paw paw trees and 720 eddoes plants, Kall Co Ltd is only liable for $30,000.

The judgment was delivered in the San Fernando High Court in a lawsuit filed by farmer Baliram Baijoo, 65, of Endeavour Road.

He sued Kall Co, alleging that on August 21, 2012, its tractors dug up dirt while repairing Soogrim Trace, and placed it on his pawpaw plants. The tractors also flattened two acres of land and Baijoo further contended that putting this dirt on the land also blocked the watercourses and resulted in 1,600 pawpaw trees and 720 roots of eddoes plants being destroyed.

Kall Co challenged the lawsuit in a defence argued by attorney Genna Lucky-Samaroo, instructing attorney Shiva Sharma. Attorney Vashist Maharaj presented Baijoo's claim.

Kall Co said it was repairing the road and drainage on Soogrim Trace for the National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd and put dirt on the boundary of the land, but only about 45-50 pawpaw trees were destroyed.

On October 8, 2010, it received a claim from Baijoo for $3.5 million for damages and trespass.

But Kall Co said that in November 2012, in a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources, Baijoo listed his losses at only $200,000. The company also said it learnt that the pawpaw trees which Baijoo claimed it destroyed had been attacked by a fungus, and tests by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute revealed the pawpaw cultivation contained a yeast and mole which rendered the entire field of little value.

In an oral judgment, Seepersad said he found Baijoo had failed to establish that he did in fact plant 1,600 pawpaw trees or that the profit generated, based on yield, would be in the vicinity of the $3.5 million he claimed.

Baijoo also failed to establish that Kall Co’s depositing the dirt materially changed the topography of the land and resulted in flooding.

Instead of the $3.5 million claimed, Seepersad awarded Baijoo $30,000 for only the few pawpaw trees destroyed by putting dirt on the boundary.

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"Judge rules for pawpaw farmer – but $30,000, not $3m"

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