Couple ordered to pay damages for trespassing

A Prince George couple has been ordered to pay a neighbour nearly $11,000 in damages for damaging a gate, erecting signs and flagging and cutting down trees on property she owns without her permission.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale, who reached the verdict Friday, found the acts committed by Darryl and Carlie Lynn Phillips, as well as his brother Paul, amounted to trespassing.

The Phillips’ continual entrance onto Stewart’s property was “deliberate, high-handed and egregious” and cutting down the trees was “at best grossly negligent,” Tindale also commented.

The couple had been at odds with Joanne Stewart over a vacant property she owned of about 1.6 hectares (four acres) on Chief Lake Road, located between the property where she lived and where the Phillips lived.

During a trial, held over three days in December 2017, Tindale heard that Stewart first met the Phillips in October 2013 when, upon returning home from an extended trip, she found two signs put up on the property.

Stewart said she asked the Phillips four times before they took the signs down. The next day, they asked if they could use the driveway on the property to reach their land and Stewart gave them permission.

But a few days later, Stewart noticed a flagging on the trees on the property where she lived and when she asked Darryl Phillips to take them down, his insisted they were on his property.

In turn, Stewart obtained a survey but when she asked the Phillips to cover half the cost in exchange for allowing them to use the driveway, she was told to leave.

Stewart also testified that in fall 2013 she noticed two large birch trees and eight smaller aspen trees on the property where she lived had been cut down, and then in spring 2014, found more trees down on the vacant property.

In fall 2014, Stewart listed the vacant property for sale at $45,000 but by the spring of 2016, she took it off the market after receiving just one offer for $30,000.

She provided a photo of the for sale sign lying on the ground and asserted it had been pushed over.

When the couple continued to use the driveway, she put logs across the entrance. And when they were pushed away, she had a new gate installed, which in turn was damaged.

In reaching his decision, Tindale found that Stewart clearly told the Phillips not to use the driveway unless they paid for part of the survey.

Paul Phillips, who took care of the couples’ property when they were away, testified there was an agreement in place but the evi- dence did not establish that claim, Tindale found.

There was an easement in place to allow for a water line to a well but it was supposed to be renewed every five years and there was some question as to whether that had been done. In any case, Tindale accepted Stewart’s evidence that there was no water line in place and even if there was, it did not enable the Phillips to use the driveway.

Tindale also found the evidence supports Stewart’s claim they flagged her property.

And while it was possible the trees on the vacant property could have blown down, Tindale found the trees on the property where she had lived had been cut down by the Phillips.

Although Stewart did not see them in the act, Tindale noted that Paul Phillips testified the couple flagged the trees and that, in spring 2014, Carlie Phillips posted on social media: “Neighbour lady strikes again... let the logging begin!”

In all, Tindale ordered the Phillips to pay $10,982.90 in damages – $1,532 for the birch and aspen trees and $1,650.09 for the survey plus $7,500 in punitive damages. The Phillips were also ordered to pay Stewart’s legal costs.

And he granted Stewart a permanent injunction against the Phillips going onto her property.

The full decision is posted with this story at pgcitizen.ca.