DAMAGES to be paid
to owners of homes
destroyed in the
Riverside Drive
mudslides have finally
been settled two and a
half years after the
catastrophe. But even
now it appears there
are no winners.

A B.C. Supreme Court
ruling awards $31,000 to
John and Doris Chu and
$21,000 to Don Cowan,
whose homes on Riverside
Drive were destroyed in the
mudslides of December 17,
1979.

The amounts represent
the difference between the
value of their homes and the
sum paid to them from the
Provincial Dnsaster Rehef
Fund.

The damages
were against
Maureen Dawson, judged
liable for the incident
because fill from excavation
for a swimming pool at their
home at 2379 Carman Place
was turned into a mudslide
when torrential rains washed
i onto the two properties
below theirs

Ken Dawson told the

awarded
Ken and

By CHRIS LLOYD

News that the compensation
will be paid by insurance.

“It is more of an an-
noyance. It is not going to
cost us anything out of
pocket,” he said.

But he expressed
disappointment that such an
action should have been
‘brought by neighbors. -

SURPRISE

“It was a sutprise to us
that neighbors in a com-
munity would launch a
lawsuit over something hke
that when they were fully
compensated by the disaster
fund,” he said.

The province paid the
Chus $90.000 and Cowan
$70,000 for damages to their
homes and lots.

Dawson said he un-
derstands that after selling
their property the final
compensation received by
the Chus was more than
$250,000.

However, Doris Chu said
mortgage payments had to
continue to be made even
after the destruction of her
home.

She said of the damages

Victims sue neighbor

DE COURT ¢
S NO WINN

award: “] suppose one would
think it is a victory in some
ways. All I know is we are
still not ending up with the
amount of money needed to
buy another house the
same.”

Chu now lives in a rented
apartment and said she
would have had no interest
in rebuilding a home on the
Riverside Drive site after the
disaster which destroyed her
old one there.

She commented on her
court action against her
former neighbor: “I am sorry
the Dawsons had to pay up
and not the municipality.”

And though of the three
parties involved in the

damages case, the Dawsons
are the only ones who still
have a home at the disaster
sileé in which to live, Ken
Dawson pointed out that
they also suffered in the

-under the

rainstorm.

“We lost a good portion of
our yard. But that was land
— and land isn’t covered
home com-
pensation act, only homes
were.”

Vas

7505 MONTARA

OVERGROWN _ssite

where homes were des-
troyed in mudslide is
viewed from Dawson
home above by son Jeff
Dawson.

Eggertson photo)

(Eric

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