The Court of Ap­peal has dis­missed an ap­peal brought by home­own­ers Leslie Ann Rahim-Pe­ters and Lar­ry Pe­ters against the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, up­hold­ing a High Court rul­ing that re­ject­ed their neg­li­gence claim for struc­tur­al dam­age to their home.

In its judg­ment de­liv­ered yes­ter­day, the court al­so dis­missed an ap­peal against costs, leav­ing the home­own­ers li­able to pay 50 per cent of the pre­scribed tri­al costs, amount­ing to $48,065.

The ap­peal cen­tred on claims that ex­ca­va­tion work car­ried out by con­trac­tors for the cor­po­ra­tion caused se­vere struc­tur­al dam­age to the fam­i­ly’s home. The home­own­ers ar­gued that in May 2015, con­trac­tors ex­ca­vat­ing an in­vert drain along the north­ern bound­ary of their prop­er­ty caused a sec­tion of the perime­ter wall to col­lapse. They claimed the prop­er­ty was left un­pro­tect­ed and the lat­er re­moval of tem­po­rary steel shoring sheets desta­bilised the land be­neath the house. They claimed the works trig­gered ex­ten­sive struc­tur­al dam­age, in­clud­ing cracks in walls and floors, foun­da­tion is­sues and move­ment with­in the house it­self.