DAMAGES FOR TRESPASS

Horsford v Bird [2006] UKPC 3, 17 January 2006

The Privy Council in Horsford v Bird [2006] UKPC 3, 17 January 2006 held that the claimant landowner was entitled to recover compensatory damages and mesne profits from the defendant who had built a wall and a fence on land belonging to the claimant. The Privy Council did not, apparently, require the claimant to elect between his claim for compensatory damages and his claim to recover mesne profits. It is unfortunate that the Privy Council did not consider the nature of the claim to recover mesne profits in more detail. To the extent that the Privy Council appears to have allowed the claimant to recover compensatory damages and damages assessed by reference to the profit made by the defendant, the decision is not easy to reconcile with the earlier decision of the Privy Council in Tang Man Sit v Capacious Investments Ltd [1996] AC 514 where it was held that a claimant must make an election between these two claims.