I was reading some old newspapers and trying to find something to write about this week, when I noticed an evergreen story.
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Today’s column will look at a dispute between two homeowners. Back in 1994, a new neighbour was in town. Lois McTaggart purchased a home in northeast Lloyd up by E.S. Laird Middle School.
The home was beautiful and surrounded by spruce trees that enclosed the property, which created a real park-like environment.
The house was getting remodelled and the outside was next on the list. In total, there were 59 spruce trees on all sides of the yard. There were park benches, bird baths and even a fountain to really set the mood.
One day, McTaggart returned home from work and found a neighbour had entered her property and pruned the spruce trees, separating their yards 10-feet up from the ground. There were only tufts left at the top of the trees.
That particular neighbour had lived next door since 1962 and claimed the trees made it impossible for him to maintain his yard, despite never previously complaining about it. He had recently suffered a stroke and McTaggart didn’t charge him with trespassing.
Eventually, she took him to small claims court after seeing the damage.
The judge ruled in her favour, awarding her $5K, but said a similar case was heard in front of a higher court and the victim was awarded $500K.
The estimate to replace the trees was $10K, double what she was awarded, and her realtor estimated her property value had dropped by $10K.
McTaggart and her husband had to do the work themselves.
The 23 trees were turned into mulch and placed at the base of the remaining trees. She worked to maintain the pruned trees that had survived and the neighbour had to build a fence as part of the settlement.
It was a very emotional situation and I think it’s a bizarre thing to enter someone’s property to prune their trees.
Reading the story, it also made me wonder if the neighbour had recently suffered a stroke, was he able to do the tree pruning himself?
To likely no one’s surprise, the neighbour was unavailable for comment. I also don’t know the severity of the stroke, but it makes me wonder if he had to hire someone to prune the trees or did he do it himself.
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