Judge awards couple $34,500 in bitter neighbours’ dispute

Hearth Crescent is a quiet street just south of the corner of Highland Road West and Lawrence Avenue in Kitchener. But for six years, two sets of neighbours have been embroiled in a bitter dispute.

The problems began in 2011 when Jeffrey Cline complained about a barking dog owned by next-door neighbours Christopher Johnson and his wife, Susan. Later, Cline alleged trespassing and taunting while the Johnsons alleged profanities and threats.

Police were called more than 30 times.

The dispute wound up in civil court, with a judge this week awarding the Johnsons $30,000 for “interference” and loss of enjoyment of their home, and $4,500 for mental distress. Both Johnsons said the dispute caused depression.

At the trial, Cline tabled 746 pages of handwritten journal notes he compiled between February 2011 and April 2017.

The first complaint dealt with the Johnsons’ dog. Cline alleged barking woke him up 16 times in a 45-day period. The Johnsons got training for the dog and a collar designed to curb barking.

Cline also complained Christopher Johnson left a beer bottle on the windowsill of Johnson’s home on the side facing Cline’s home.

Cline alleged Johnson left the bottle to “taunt him or bait him because they knew that he had quit drinking, as a result of the fact that he used to have an alcohol problem,” Justice Stephen Glithero wrote in a 26-page recap and ruling.

“When asked about it, he agreed he had no reason to believe that the Johnsons knew that he used to be a drinker, and accordingly they would have no reason to believe that leaving a beer bottle on an exterior window ledge would bait him in any way.”

Cline made a note in December 2015 that Christopher Johnson used a saw and a snowblower in the afternoon.

“He refused to agree in crossexamination that cutting wood or starting a snowblower in December in Canada is a normal neighbourhood activity and maintained that it was done to harass him,” Glithero said.

Cline said the Johnsons would often slam their vehicle and house doors to annoy him.

“The Johnsons deny any such deliberate slamming and maintain that they took extra caution to be quiet because of their desire to avoid annoying Mr. Cline,” the judge said.

Cline accused Christopher Johnson of slamming the lid of his barbecue to harass and annoy him.

“Mr. Johnson denies doing so and maintains that he simply used his barbecue in a normal way and caused no more noise than one normally makes by closing those metal lids,” Glithero said.

Cline also alleged the Johnsons frequently blew their vehicle horns, disrupting his sleep.

“The explanation from both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson is that both of their vehicles, when locked using the key fob which came with the vehicle, would emit a short beep of the horn,” Glithero said.

A video played in court showed that “the noise emitted by the vehicle is, in my assessment, not very loud, is of very short duration, and might properly be termed a ‘chirp,’ ” the judge said.

Cline claimed the Johnsons deliberately used the noise to harass, annoy and intimidate him. The Johnsons denied it.

Cline alleged Christopher Johnson put cigarette butts on Cline’s driveway in August 2015, but Johnson said he quit smoking the previous year. Cline also alleged the Johnsons trespassed on his property.

Christopher Johnson said Cline once threatened to “punch my teeth down my throat” and alleged Cline once told Susan Johnson to “shut the f--- up, bitch.” Cline denied it.

The Johnsons reported Cline’s alleged actions to the police four times. Cline called police more than 30 times complaining about such things as barking, slamming of doors and surveillance cameras.

“These complaints necessitated the involvement of numerous officers who either attended at one or both of these residences, or interviewed the parties, or spoke to the parties by phone,” the judge said. No charges were laid. Glithero found the Johnsons were credible witnesses.

“They did not argue with counsel. They did not add ‘colour commentary’ to their answers but rather directly answered the question asked,” the judge said.

“In my opinion Mr. Cline did not come across as a credible witness for several reasons. His behaviour while testifying, particularly during cross-examination, was that of an angry, cocky and combative person.”

He concluded Cline has “an obsession toward the Johnsons.”

“His 746 pages of handwritten journal notes are replete with unfounded suspicions, notations of events that would be of no importance to reasonable people, and are full of references to his dislike and lack of respect for virtually everyone else involved in this case,” Glithero said.

“The volume of notes he made, and the detail recorded therein, evidences to me that Mr. Cline must have spent most of the time when he was at home observing the Johnson property.”

The judge dismissed Cline’s counterclaim for damages.

“Mr. Cline complains that he has been baited, taunted, and otherwise mistreated by the Johnsons to the extent that he feels that he is a prisoner in his own home,” Glithero said.

“I reject those complaints. In my opinion, Mr. Cline is the victim of his own obsession and unreasonable expectation that everyone else in his world will act in accordance with his perceptions of what is reasonable.”

The Johnsons and Cline remain neighbours.

The judge said he hopes to “assist in the maintenance of a peaceful truce” and ordered Cline to not interfere with the Johnsons’ use of their property. He can have no communication with the Johnsons except with their written agreement.