THERE IS a significant dispute over the valuation to be placed on a Tory island holiday home which “disappeared” while its owner was abroad, the High Court heard yesterday.
Film-maker Neville Presho, from Holywood, Co Down, won a High Court action last July against an adjoining hotel for trespass and physical damage to his 19th-century stone house on Tory Island after it was gradually destroyed while he was living in New Zealand between 1988 and 1994.
Mr Justice Roderick Murphy ruled that Mr Presho was entitled to a new house or its equivalent market value. The matter was adjourned to yesterday when the judge heard there were significant differences between the sides over what valuation could be put on an equivalent house in Tory.
Cormac O’Dulacháin, for Mr Presho, said their valuer had estimated €60,000 for such a house but Séamus Ó Tuathail, for the hotel owner, said his side’s valuer had advanced a figure between €11,000 to €12,000.
Mr Justice Murphy said he would hear legal submissions in a month’s time as to how the valuation is to be arrived at.
Mr Presho sued Ostán Thoraigh Comhlacht Teo and its owner Patrick Doohan, alleging that after he returned home in 1994, he found a car park for the hotel in the place where his house once stood. The judge found Mr Presho was entitled to damages for trespass and interference with his property.