Mum’s £30,000 court bill over her daughter’s yapping terrier

A MOTHER is fighting a legal bill of more than £30,000 in a dispute over the yapping of her daughter’s dog.

angela Waring was taken to court by angry neighbours after the incessant barking of kim eacott’s terrier Scally – caused by ‘separation anxiety’.

Miss eacott lived in a Victorian cottage next to Bryn and Diane Cocking which had been bought by her mother but her pet barked whenever she was not at home, the Court of appeal heard.

Mrs Waring said she tried to calm the situation, even offering to take Scally to a dog trainer to relax him.

But the noise drove Miss eacott’s neighbours in Hereford to distraction and they took both mother and daughter to court.

Mrs Waring was living 30 miles away in Crickhowell, Powys, and was not on speaking terms with her daughter.

a judge at Worcester County Court ruled in favour of the Cockings in 2013, upholding their noise nuisance claim.

Miss eacott was ordered to pay £3,500 in damages and her mother £1,000 because she owned the cottage.

The younger woman has since moved after her mother bought her another home but both of them were jointly hit with a £31,000 legal costs bill.

Mrs Waring is now asking the appeal Court to rule that she was not her daughter’s keeper and should not have to pay for her failure to control Scally. The earlier case heard how the dog barked constantly when Miss eacott, in her 40s, was away from her home. Scally’s owner was described as ‘diffident, fragile and nervous’ but was also found to have ‘let off steam by shouting’.

Hamish MacBean, for Mrs Waring, told the appeal Court that she wrote to her daughter: ‘If Scally barks when you are not there, there is a dog whisperer in abergavenny who can cure him in a gentle way.’

Mr MacBean argued it was not fair for the mother to have been liable for the actions of her daughter and her over- sensitive pet especially as they were estranged. Catherine Doran, for Mrs and Mrs Cocking, said the judge had rightly awarded damages and costs against both mother and daughter because of ‘Mrs Waring’s failure to abate the nuisance’.

Lady Justice arden said the relationship between mother and daughter was not simply commercial and that Mrs Waring had ‘turned a blind eye’ to the problem. Scally has since been put down.

The appeal Court judges will give their ruling at a later date.