Barking up wrong tree or barking mad?
2009-11-05
IT is a pity that the author of the letter “Barking up the wrong tree” (Your Neighbour in the Paarl Post of 29 October 2009) did not have the courage of her convictions to identify herself. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the street in question is in Rabie Street near the Strooidak Church and that the letter in part refers to me. I was the guest who visited the neighbours across the road on Sunday, 18 October , and who “exercised my rights” when I parked my car in the street in front of the author’s house. For the sake of the argument I suppose it would only be fair to inform fellow readers that the dispute involves a tree which is planted on the pavement in front of the house (not in the front garden, as claimed in the letter) and that you take issue with people who park in the shade that this tree produces in the street in front of your house. Thank you also for suggesting that I familiarise myself with the concept of neighbour and nuisance law. This was what I read on the internet: “A neighbour whose conduct qualifies as nuisance deprives his/her fellow neighbour of the use and enjoyment of his/her property, which he in truth deprives him/her of his/her own property.” Is it therefore your (legal) argument that the shade in the street in front of your house, produced by a tree planted on the pavement in front of your house, constitutes your property? Furthermore: “A residence in a town, and more particularly a resident in a residential neighbourhood, is entitled to the ordinary comfort and convenience of his home and, if owing to the actions of his neighbour he is subjected to annoyance or inconvenience greater than that to which a normal person must be expected to submit in contact with his fellow-men, then he has a legal remedy. The standard taken must be the standard not of the perverse or finicky or over-scrupulous person, but of the normal man of sound and liberal tastes and habits.” Unfortunately, you also neglected to mention how your actions have endeared you to your neighbours. I understand that on Sunday, 1 November, a distasteful argument ensued in front of your house with guests of different neighbours over this issue. Maybe a “normal man (or woman) of sound and liberal tastes and habits” can tell us who the shade in the street belongs to and who is allowed to park there. Dr Johnnie Louw Fresnaye Cape Town
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