Neighbours in a quiet enclave in Hampstead village ended up in the High Court over a longrunning dispute about a shared courtyard which saw police called to their Georgian terrace.
Now chartered surveyor Anthony Meaden has been ordered to pay his next door neighbour Samantha Wright more than £3,000 in damages and costs following the dispute during which he falsely accused her of having a criminal record, behaving irrationally and “not holding down a day-time working position.”
The row over boundaries erupted after Mr Meaden decided to partition a courtyard they shared at their homes in Mount Square with a wooden fence.
On June 13 2016 Mr Meaden notified Miss Wright he planned to put a fence and trellis along the boundary line.
But Miss Wright called for a surveyor to establish the correct lines of an area which had been shared “amicably” with her last neighbour.
Miss Wright said: “When they wrote to me about building a fence I was shocked. They thought they could get away with it.”
In a reply four days later Mr Meaden claimed “the exact line” was shown on his title plan and said he would mark the boundary but Miss Wright countered with a title plan from 1958 showing a different boundary.
However the Meadens put up the fence anyway and Miss Wright, 49, said she was forced to take matters into her own hands tearing down the seven-foot high fence on three occasions prompting the couple to call out the police accusing their neighbour of criminal damage.
Eventually Miss Wright took the couple to the High Court where, in documents shown to the Ham&High, the Meadens described Miss Wright as “an oddity” and said: “given the nature of her appearance, we do not believe she holds a day-time working position.”
The single mum – who runs a stall in Inverness Street Market in Camden selling vintage clothing – submitted evidence showing she was forced to seek medical treatment for stress.
Mr Meaden and wife Anri, a consultant for Deutsche Bank, argued they put up the partition to “contain” their kids, pets and property and filed a counter-claim of £4,960.
But the judge found in Miss Wright’s favour awarding her £2,780 in damages, £520 in costs and £28 in expenses.
The Meadens did not respond to our requests for a comment.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here