From: David
Cheifetz <dcheifetz@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday 24
March 2025 06:04
To: obligations@uwo.ca
Subject: Western
Australia tort law - property damage - diminution in value of property
Dear All
A plea for assistance from a voice from the past --
If I might impose on those of you with knowledge of current
WA law -
I has been suggested to me that WA doesn't recognize any
claim based on negligence for diminution in value of land or building by a
subsequent owner of the property. There is no contract involved.
I haven't been able to find a case specifically on point in
Austlii, nor a reference to an article. I suspect that's my failing not
Austlii's.
The suggestion sounds a bit antediluvian and implicitly at
odds with Bryan v Maloney (where that was the described loss) albeit the
issue there was the existence of a duty of care at all.
Neil Foster has been good enough to advise there's nothing
in Luntz's Damages and to send me the relevant pages of Luntz & Hambly,
Torts, where (to me at least) ss 9.3.5-7
imply the cause of action exists.
David