The Court of Appeal in London upheld a ruling today forcing a Cumbrian couple to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to their neighbours because their campaign of harassment caused the value of their neighbours’ property to fall.
A three-judge panel at the court said an earlier judge was right to force Peter and Lesley Young to pay Steven and Fiona Raymond £155,000 to make up for a 20% fall in the value of their property, plus damages of £8,500 and legal costs of at least £150,000. However, they threw out an extra damages claim of £20,000.
The Raymonds own a property called Lynn Cragg Farm in Blawith, Cumbria. The Youngs are the owners of neighbouring Lynn Cragg Cottage. Peter Young’s father owned both the farm and the cottage in the 1950s and 1960s but sold most of it on his retirement in the late 60s, leaving just the cottage in the family.
The Raymonds, who bought the house in 2009, complain that, among other things, the Youngs have continuously harassed and intimidated them, didn’t control their dog and allowed it to defecate on their land, burned plastic, blocked their driveway, and vandalised property.
According to the judgment, the Youngs have been harassing every owner of the property for almost 40 years and their campaign is known about in the village.
It was “a campaign of truculence and belligerence, borne out of Mr Young’s resentment against the acquisition and use of the farm as a weekend home,” Lord Justice Patten said in the ruling, citing an earlier judgment in the case.
(1) Peter James Raymond (2) Lesley Raymond v (1) Steven Frederick Young (2) Fiona Young (Patten LJ, Briggs LJ, King LJ), Court of Appeal, 14 May 2015
Anthony Elleray QC (instructed by Green Solicitors) for the appellants.
Edward Bartley Jones QC (instructed by Cartmell Shepherd) for the respondents.
