Neighbour Disputes Case Law

Neighbour disputes case study McKenzie v Grant

With reference to the Scottish Herald - 24 February 2008

"Neighbours fought over land one foot wide" The strap line read - "year-long court battle was lamentable says sheriff"

The sheriff said the case was 'lamentable litigation'. Mrs McKenzie, a 62 year old widow in Inverness, and her retired policeman neighbour Bob Grant, fell out over the land between their properties, more specifically whether the boundary lay 380mm one way or the other.

In a dispute which involved various protests in front of mechanical diggers, attacks by a pet dog and a proof which took 12 days to complete at a cost of £30,000 Mrs McKenzie won the argument. The sheriff's postscript reads thus:

"Every generation of litigators can point to examples of civil actions about minute matters resulting in grossly disproportionate expense. This case is one of those. It is further evidence of the need to reform {Scottish} rules of civil procedure, which, despite the reforms of 1993 [to Scottish law] in practice still prevent the court from intervening at an early stage of an action to prevent needless expense".

In my view, if a similar dispute arose in England or Wales, the lawyers, mindful of the obligation to use ADR where appropriate, would find it difficult to ignore the RICS Neighbour Disputes Service. Using the service would mean that only a fraction of the sum expended in the McKenzie case would be incurred.