
A mother and son, staunchly opposed to the construction of a pet crematorium in the proximity of their home, have been mandated by the court to recompense the owners of the establishment in excess of $120,000 following a protracted consent procedure.
The protracted legal battle was characterized as devoid of merit by Environment Court Judge Brian Dwyer, who further commanded Bevan and Isobel Currie to bear the legal costs for both the crematorium and the city council.
Simone Morrison, owner of Soul Friends Pet Cremations, voiced her empathetic understanding of the controversy surrounding the location of a crematorium. She acknowledged that such concerns about land value are reasonable but suggested that most objections boil down to personal preferences rather than substantial grievances.
The legal opposition in Ashurst, a locality just beyond Palmerston North, had held up construction of the crematorium by nearly 18 months. However, following the court’s endorsement earlier this year, there has been a surge in construction efforts to complete the facility by the year-end.
Soul Friends currently handles about 800 cremations monthly for veterinarian clinics and private customers. The new extension will offer a serene space for grieving families.
Morrison indicated that the Curries adopted an exhaustive approach to the consent procedure, noting that they complicated the case, put forth baseless arguments, excessively prolonged the proceedings, and declined any reasonable reconciliation.
Responding to the central contention raised by the Curries that the application consent should be nullified due to it being filed under the registered name Tolly Farm Ltd and not Soul Farm, Judge Dwyer dismissed it as an irrelevant technicality, stating that there was no ambiguity about the identity of the applicant.
Another argument proposed by the Curries was that the crematorium construction was ill-suited to a parcel of land slotted for residential development by the council.
The court, releasing its verdict last week, declared the Curries responsible for the legal costs of the crematorium, amounting to $63,000 and those of the Palmerston North City Council, totalling $58,400, for their unsuccessful opposition to the development.
In his decision, Judge Dwyer stated that the Curries had been unable to factually showcase how the proposal could potentially impede the council’s long-term urban planning. He added that their failure was unacceptable to the degree of necessitating complete compensation of the other parties’ legal costs pertaining to this aspect of the case.
Additionally, Judge Dwyer pointed out that the insistence on having witnesses testify in court, regarding issues that the Curries conceded were minor, resulted in unnecessary prolongation and expenses.
Soul Friends, in turn, labeled the Curries’ case as intrinsically defective and devoid of merit, stating that the company should not have had to bear such exorbitant legal costs for merely defending its consent.