Setting a cat among trustees
Homeowners in an idyllic complex are at war with each other
A building dispute in Knysna has degenerated into a Garden Route Game of Thrones, complete with foul language, feuding rich folk and an alleged threat to target a resident’s elderly mother.
At the centre of it all is an unfinished building eyesore which the frustrated owner calls Winterfell after the fictional city in the Game of Thrones TV series.
Details of the millionaire feud on Thesen Islands, an exclusive development in the Knysna lagoon, are contained in court papers filed in a defamation case before the Johannesburg high court.
Thesen Islands Homeowners Association has launched legal proceedings against a resident, Trent Rossini, who has criticised trustees and their costly efforts to block the new building. Rossini’s answering responding papers reveal how toxic the dispute has become:
Rossini claims to have opened a criminal case against island resident Neil Lurie for allegedly threatening his mother;
Lurie allegedly made the threatening call from the development’s gatehouse and called Rossini a “c***” in an e-mail sent to some residents. Lurie, a businessman, is the husband of homeowners association trustee Sam Lurie, one of the applicants in the defamation case; and
Lurie reportedly later claimed the reason
for the gatehouse call was because his cat was stuck in Rossini’s garage.
In a court submission earlier this year, the homeowner trustees claimed Rossini had impugned their dignity by publishing defamatory comments on an online homeowner forum. Rossini prefaced one of his posts by stating: “I am getting the feeling that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.”
In his affidavit, homeowners chair William Cooper, former CEO of engineering group Dorbyl, said Rossini was intent on continuing “his pattern of degradation towards the applicants”.
The association’s lawyer, Alan Warrener, said his clients, including individual trustees, would not comment while the matter was before court. Neil Lurie could not be reached for comment.
Rossini confirmed he had made critical comments about trustees but said his views reflected those of many residents, in particular concerns about the association’s costly legal crusade against the “Winterfell” property. He said it was ironic that the association had incurred more legal costs to apparently silence criticism of the legal battle.
Last week, the high court dismissed the homeowners’ attempt to interdict Rossini from making further allegedly defamatory posts. The main defamation action is due to be heard later this year.
The Sunday Times has seen an e-mail sent to Thesen Islands residents last week by “concerned residents” who claimed the trustees “make decisions based on personal agendas and their actions lead to significant wasted expenditure of our funds”.
In his answering affidavit filed in the interdict application, Rossini denied his comments were defamatory and detailed how he had received an anonymous phone call from the Thesen Islands gatehouse.
The caller said: “You had better call Neil Lurie or your mother’s safety is at risk.” Rossini said his mother often visited him and her name appeared on a gatehouse contact list.
The caller was later identified as Lurie by the homeowners general manager, Rossini said in his affidavit. “Mr Lurie had stated his cat was stuck in [my] garage,” he said.
He said he later reported the matter to the police. The Sunday Times asked the police to confirm this but did not receive a reply.
Knysna Ratepayers Association chair Susan Campbell said the defamation case should not distract from serious concerns about the “Winterfell” building, owned by Johannesburg attorney Andre Schempers.
Plans were approved by the Knysna municipality and Campbell said the trustees had since gone to court in an attempt to have permission revoked.
“A group of [Thesen Islands] owners who support Schempers are running a social media campaign to discredit the trustees with the objective of taking over and pulling the plug on the court case,” said Campbell.
Schempers said he was being unfairly targeted by the trustees and had the support of the Thesen Islands Commercial Owners Association, which oversees the Harbour Town commercial area. He said the dispute could have been resolved with the municipality without the homeowners’ intervention.
This week numerous Knysna residents with knowledge of the dispute said it was in essence a commercial power struggle between rivals in the hospitality sector.