The Yukon Supreme Court has ordered a Dawson City miner to pay the town between $28,222 and $46,890 in damages for a trespass claim filed in 2010.

But Dawson will be responsible for its own legal fees.

The town brought the action against Darrel Carey, an area placer miner and owner of the Slinky mine.

Carey's mine falls within municipal boundaries. It includes portions of two highways, the Dome Road and the Mary McLeod Road.

According to the decision document released last week by Justice Ron Veale, Carey removed trees and organics from an area where the two roads intersect in April 2010.

One hundred and sixty squared metres were cleared within 10 metres of the Mary McLeod Road centreline, 1950 sq. m were within 30 m of the centreline, 310 sq. m were within 30 m of the Dome Road centreline and 1013 sq. m were within 40 m of the Dome Road centreline.

Between June and August 2010, Carey removed 483 cu. m of granular material from within 30 m of the Dome Road and 1,115 cu. m from within 40 m of the same road.

Both the Dome Road and the Mary McLeod Road are classified as Class V highways under the Highways Act. That means a 60-m right-of-way or road allowance is imposed on them under the act.

Carey's defence was that his Yukon Water Board licence required a leave strip of between only 10 and 15 metres from the centre of each road.

Veale found that "the miner cannot rely upon the Water Use Licences and their leaves strip conditions to operate within the 60-metre right-of-way of the roads.”

Veale notes in his decision that the Waters Act says "nothing in this act, the regulations, or a licence authorizes a person to contravene or fail to comply with any other act or any regulation or order made under it, except as provided in that other act, regulation, or order.”

Dawson was awarded $2,200 for hydro seeding where Carey removed trees and organics and between $26,022 and $44,690 to replace the granular material he removed depending on whether it can be recovered from the placer mine or if it must be obtained from other sources.

In a second decision document, Veale ordered the town to pay its own legal fees, where normally Carey would have been responsible for covering the town's costs.

Veale reasons that while he ultimately ruled in favour of the town, counsel for Carey had been "ambushed” when counsel for the town raised section 18(1) of the Placer Act "at the last minute.”

Veale calls it "wholly inappropriate and unfair.

"The fair and proper procedure would have been to raise the new issue of s. 18(1) or the request to file a new argument at case management, so that each party could prepare arguments to address the new issue,” he says in the decision document.

Section 18(1) of the Placer Act maintains that a miner cannot enter on lands legally occupied by someone else "until adequate security is given, to the satisfaction of the mining recorder for any loss or damage that may be caused.”

"There is little doubt here that the city is in lawful occupation of the Dome Road and the Mary McLeod Road,” Veale says in his original decision document.

Counsel for Carey admitted no security was posted but argued it was the town's responsibility to pursue security.

"In my view, s. 18(1) can only be interpreted to require that the miner provide security to the satisfaction of the mining recorder before entering on land lawfully occupied by the city,” Veale says.

As a result of the late submission, Veale says "in the normal course ... the city would recover its costs and reasonable disbursements from the miner, unless the court otherwise orders. I am ordering otherwise in this case.

"Each party shall be responsible for their legal fees and disbursements.”

See letter