Flushed away
Lawyer loses court case over his neighbour’s noisy toilet... as sheriff rounds on his ‘fixation’ with the loo
A SCOTTISH lawyer accused of being ‘obsessed’ with his neighbour’s noisy toilet has lost a legal fight to make them stop using it.
James Morris, a former partner in law firm Blackadders, claimed he and his wife Susan, 69, were being kept awake at night by the loo flushing upstairs.
He claimed the noise coming from the Airbnb flat in Kinghorn, Fife, was like a ‘motorcycle revving’ or a chainsaw starting. Mr Morris, 52, even hired an acoustics expert in a bid to get an interdict served on flat owners Robert Curran and Jo McGarry-Curran.
The expert said the noise from the malfunctioning macerator system was at times well in excess of World Health Organisation guidelines.
But Sheriff Grant McCulloch has now thrown out the case and accused Mr Morris and his wife of becoming totally fixated on the lavatory problem.
He said he found the Morrises’ evidence to be ‘largely truthful... [but] often exaggerated to the extent it became rather unreliable’.
In his judgment published yesterday, Sheriff McCulloch wrote: ‘I considered that they had become totally fixated on the noise from above, as evidenced by the recording of every arrival and departure, every flush of the toilet and just about every footstep. This made them appear to be obsessed with what went on upstairs, and I am satisfied that they would like the defenders to stop letting the flat out altogether.’
Neighbours Mr and Mrs Curran rent out their flat through Airbnb while they spend most of their time in Honolulu, where Mr Curran is a high-profile sports broadcaster with his own show.
His wife is a vice-president at international commercial property firm CBRE and is also a host of restaurant and food industry radio shows on Hawaiian radio. During the owners’ time away from Fife, Mr Morris compiled a diary, including entries on Christmas Day, detailing the loud growling of the toilet system.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that in ‘detailed’ notes he jotted down guests’ arrivals, departures and bathroom habits, showing that the awful grinding noise had ruined the Morrises’ lives.
Mr Morris said his records suggested American guests at the property tended to shower when they arrived at the flat – even late at night – and that women tended to use the toilet as soon as they got in. He denied any suggestion that his record-keeping had been an obsession.
The Morrises sought an interdict to prevent use of the macerator and pump system, installed where normal plumbing cannot otherwise flush waste away.
At an earlier hearing, witness Suzanne Gilfeather, who works as a cleaner for Mr and Mrs Curran, said she felt ‘intimidated’ by Mr Morris’s obsession with recording all movements in and out of the property.
She said: ‘It’s not a very nice feeling, to be honest. I was aware that I was being watched and monitored. It felt like stalking. He takes such an unhealthy interest – moving bins, going from room to room. I feel intimidated and very uncomfortable.’
Sheriff McCulloch ruled any noise and vibration from the toilet was not a nuisance, adding: ‘The Saniflo macerator has been properly installed and maintained. It functions as it should.
‘Items have occasionally entered the unit against manufacturer’s recommendations, causing the unit to malfunction. Each time, the defenders or their representative have had the issue resolved.’
The sheriff said insulation between the two flats was poor, which might allow increased noise penetration.
‘Recording every flush, every footstep’