€46,000 for owner of Tory Island home that 'vanished'
Tuesday November 10 2009
THE owner of an island holiday home that "disappeared" while he was abroad has said the compensation award could buy him a chicken coop -- but that he wouldn't have enough cash left to stock it with chickens.
Film-maker Neville Presho was awarded €46,000 after winning a lengthy court battle over the destruction of his house on Tory Island, off the coast of Donegal.
He won his action against an adjoining hotel for trespass and physical damage to the 19th century stone house after it was gradually destroyed while he was living in New Zealand between 1988 and 1994.
However, last night Mr Presho expressed his disappointment with the court's decision and said he would be consulting with his solicitor in the coming days to decide what, if any, future action he would take.
"Yes, I am disappointed with the size of the award," he told the Irish Independent. "If you want to be realistic about it, you could build a really nice chicken coop with that sort of money but you would have no money left over to buy the chickens."
Unique
Mr Presho, from Holywood, Co Down, said that few, if any, houses came up for sale on Tory Island and those that did changed hands between locals, usually for small amounts, while the only alternative of purchasing a site and building a house came with a cost.
"To rebuild my house on Tory Island bringing everything from the mainland, would cost a lot more -- €46,000 might get you three feet up the walls but not in a million years would you build a complete house.
"My cost of €400,000 was much more realistic. What I had on Tory Island was unique. It was the only house on the island facing due south, with a panoramic view of the Donegal mainland. I could sit and watch the fishing boats coming and going," he said.
The case had been adjourned to allow lawyers for both sides make submissions on valuation after the court heard there were significant differences between the parties over what value could be put on an equivalent house on Tory.
Mr Justice Roderick Murphy found Mr Presho was entitled to a new house or its equivalent market value.
But his lawyer said their valuer had put an estimate of €60,000 while counsel for the hotel owner, argued a value of €11,000 to €12,000.
Mr Justice Murphy yesterday said that, based on figures presented to him, he worked out the correct valuation as €46,000. The judge granted a stay on his finding in the event of an appeal.
Mr Presho had sued Ostan Thoraigh Comhlacht Teoranta, and its owner Patrick Doohan, claiming that after he returned home in 1994, he found a car park for the hotel in the place where his house once stood,
Mr Justice Murphy found that while Mr Presho was entitled to damages for trespass and interference with his property, it was not from the parking of cars on the house site, but from the use of a septic tank on the property for the hotel.
The judge said the equitable remedy would be not be in the reinstatement of the original house but the provision of "a comparable dwelling" on Tory Island or the open market value of a comparable dwelling.
The court heard that Mr Presho's house was damaged by fire in unexplained circumstances on January 14, 1993.
It was gradually removed in the following nine months and by the time of Mr Presho's return from New Zealand in July 1994, there was no trace of it.
Mr Presho is also to receive his legal costs.
- Anita Guidera and Tim Healy
Irish Independent
