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Collapsed wall claim is dismissed by Court of Appeal

05 May 2011

A long running neighbour dispute which has been widely reported in national and local newspapers had finally ended.

Ellisons’ solicitor Judith Winward acted for Shirley and Roy Rawlinson, who were sued by their next door neighbours Rupert and Sandra Stanley six years after a leaning boundary wall between their respective properties in Mistley fell down in a gale.  The Stanleys firstly claimed that the Rawlinsons had caused it to collapse by piling earth excavated from their swimming pool against the wall.  As the case progressed, however, the nature of the accusations changed, with the Stanleys fighting to pin the blame for the collapse of the wall on the Rawlinsons.

When the Judge at Colchester County Court in 2009 decided that the Rawlinsons had not caused the wall to collapse, the Stanleys  took their claim to the Court of Appeal.  However, their appeal failed and they were ordered to pay the Rawlinsons’ costs of the appeal, as well as the Rawlinsons’ costs ordered in earlier hearings.

During the hearing at the Court of Appeal in London, Lord Justice Tomlinson described the initial accusation made by the Stanleys as a “flight of fancy” because the swimming pool had been built many years before.  He also stated that the appeal brought to his court by theStanleys was “quite hopeless” and commented that the wall could have been rebuilt six times over with the money which had been spent on fighting the case.

Mrs Rawlinson said of the case: “I have never had anything to do with a court of law or the legal system and I found the whole case a very frustrating and really frightening experience, but Judith Winward was very supportive throughout ”.
The Rawlinsons were represented at all hearings by Kevin Leigh of No 5 Chambers.  Mr Leigh’s commentary on the case appears on his Chambers’ website www.no5.com