The High Court awarded Mary Curley €335,963 for damage to her farm at Glanmore, Derrybrien, County Galway, caused by a bogslide in October 2003. The case concerned the assessment of damages only: the parties agreed that the bogslide and material it carried damaged the farm and buildings, and that the defendants were responsible.
In a judgment delivered on 20 May 2010, Mr Justice de Valera accepted that the proper measure was the cost of restoration rather than the farm’s reduction in market value. Applying the principles in the Supreme Court decision Munnelly v Calcon Ltd, he said restoration costs could be awarded where the case was exceptional, the claimant intended to restore the property, and doing so was reasonable.
Evidence from Curley, her husband and their son was that the farm had been in the family for at least three generations, and that they intended it to remain in family ownership and be used and farmed by their son. The judge said that evidence was not contested. He found that maintaining the family connection made this an exceptional case justifying restoration costs.
The judge accepted Curley’s proposed method of removing the bogslide spoil and carrying out associated repairs, rejecting the defendants’ proposal to rotavate surface peat back into the soil. He preferred the plaintiff’s estimate that 7,459 cubic metres of peat required removal to the defendants’ estimate of 5,000 cubic metres.
Curley’s restoration estimate totalled €545,094. The judge allowed €435,963, reducing several items because he considered them excessive, partly attributable to maintenance that would have been needed anyway, or unsupported by sufficient evidence. He disallowed fencing on the basis that it was a continuing maintenance requirement. The parties accepted that the land would produce no income for five years, but the judge said the plaintiff’s evidence had not properly quantified that loss.
The judge then deducted €100,000 to reflect his estimate of the increase in the farm’s value after restoration. He said there was no specific evidence of the improved value and made the estimate from the valuations before him. He declined to award aggravated or exemplary damages. The final award was €335,963.