Weyburn (City) v. Fowler, (1983) 28 Sask.R. 121 (QB)

• Judge: Malone, J.
• Court: Court of Queen's Bench of Saskatchewan (Canada)
• Case Date: October 18, 1983
• Jurisdiction: Saskatchewan
• Citations: (1983), 28 Sask.R. 121 (QB)

Weyburn v. Fowler (1983), 28 Sask.R. 121 (QB)

MLB headnote and full text

City of Weyburn v. Fowler

(D.C. No. 3 A.D. 1981)

Indexed As: Weyburn (City) v. Fowler

Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench

Judicial Centre of Weyburn

Malone, J.

October 18, 1983.

Summary:

A city applied to have determined the amount of compensation payable to a landowner for land expropriated by the city for a water reservoir.

The Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench determined the proper amount of compensation to be awarded.

Expropriation - Topic 1010

Measure of compensation - Valuation of land - General - Value to owner - The Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench discussed the general principle of valuation of expropriated land that compensation is to be based on the value to the owner of the land, not the value to the taker - See paragraph 8.

Expropriation - Topic 1047

Measure of compensation - Methods of valuation - Partial taking - A city expropriated 2.35 acres out of a 15 acre parcel of farm land - The expropriated portion was not used by the landowner except to gain access to a water supply - The landowner argued that the market value of the total parcel should be established and divided by the total number of acres to arrive at the compensation per acre - The Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench disagreed - The court stated that such an approach can be utilized only where the expropriated acres are homogeneous to the other acres - See paragraphs 9 to 18.

Expropriation - Topic 3003

Compensation awards - Farm land - A city expropriated 2.35 acres out of a 15 acre parcel of land used for tree growing and market gardening - The expropriated land was used primarily as an access by the landowner to a water supply - The landowner would be able to have access to the water supply after the expropriation - The Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench awarded the landowner $3,000.00 per acre for a total of $7,050.00 - See paragraph 18.

Statutes Noticed:

Municipal Expropriation Act, R.S.S. 1978, c. M-27, sect. 9 [para. 6].

Counsel:

R.J. Wormsbecker, for the plaintiff;

D. Ignatiuk, for the defendant.

This application was heard before Malone, J., of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench, who delivered the following decision on October 18, 1983: