The owners of a vast mansion in Yorkshire have won a fight to bring a £100m-plus compensation claim over subsidence to the property they blame on coal mining in the local area.
The Court of Appeal rejected a claim by the Coal Authority that two damage notices served in 2007 and 2009, in relation to the 18th century mansion Wentworth Woodhouse and other structures in its grounds, were invalid.
The court upheld a preliminary ruling by George Bartlett QC, President of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) that the notices were valid, clearing the way for the brothers that own the mansion to bring their claim, which they say is “likely to be excess of £100m”.
Paul, Giles and Marcus Newbold say that extensive subsidence damage has occurred to the property in the last decade as a result of extensive mining operations carried out in the vicinity of the Wentworth Estate in the past.
However, the Coal Authority, which has previously accepted claims in respect of damage to the property caused by mining subsidence, rejected the notices on the basis that it was not liable for the damage.
When the Newbolds took their case to the Tribunal, the Authority claimed that the damage notices were invalid under s3 of the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991 because they were issued solely in the name of Paul Newbold, not the names of all three brothers that own the property.
Upholding the preliminary ruling that they were valid, Sir Stanley Burnton said that the Act lays down two requirements, that the notice be given by a person identified as the claimant and that the claimant must own the property or be a person liable to make good the damage.
He said: “If I look at the damage notices in this case and ask myself who according to its terms gave the notice, and I bear in mind who is able to give such a notice, on balance I come to the same conclusion as the President that it was the brothers, the freehold owners, giving notice, with Paul being named really as a matter of convenience (and possibly because there was only room for one person to be named on the printed form).”
He added that the notices provided adequate information to the Authority, identifying the property in question and the damage it had suffered.
The authority says that any damage to the property within the relevant period was not caused by coal mining, and so was not subsidence damage for which they have any liability under the 1991 Act.
Newbold and ors v The Coal Authority Court of Appeal (Longmore & McFarlane LJJ & Sir Stanley Burnton) 23 May 2013
Nicholas Baatz QC and Alan Johns (instructed by DLA Piper UK LLP) for the appellant
Michael Barnes QC and Eian Caws (instructed by David Cooper & Co) for the respondents
