$9m land compensation case goes to appeal

The Government yesterday sought to overturn a decision ordering it to offer back to the original owners central Wellington land worth millions of dollars seized during World War II.

The descendants of Gwyneth Edmonds, the proprietor of the Hotel Cecil, sued the Crown for $9 million last year over the Lambton Quay property which was taken under emergency regulations in 1942 to house United States Marines.

Under the Public Works Act she was then paid £79,000 sterling compensation and given 48 hours to leave.

The pecuniary claim was dismissed by the High Court at Wellington in May but Justice Forrest Miller found the Government should have offered part of the 1928 sq m site back to the Edmonds family by September 1993 and the rest by July 1997.

The land was then valued at just over $1.5 million.

The Government used the site for its offices after the war.

Most of the hotel was pulled down in 1963 and the rest demolished by Wellington City Council in 2000 for a bus turnaround area.

Crown lawyer Malcolm Parker told the Court of Appeal in Wellington that the Government agreed 832 sq m of the land should have been offered back to the family by July 1990.

"The Crown required this land for the Government and Parliament centres until 1989."

The remaining land had been exchanged with Wellington City Council by agreement in the 1960s.

The Edmonds' claim the land should have been offered back in 1982 when amendments to the Public Works Act required the land to be offered back to its original owner if it was no longer required for the purpose it was taken.

The family said the land was worth $995,000 in 1982 which rose to $9.95 million by 1988, and claim they would have sold it for a $9 million profit.

The family's lawyer, John Upton, QC, said the Government had breached its statutory duty despite accepting that the land should have been offered back.

The hearing is expected to finish today.

- NZPA