Judge calls experts to intervene in bitter hedge row

The president of the High Court has directed that experts on opposing sides in a bitter neighbours dispute over a hedge meet first thing this morning to thrash out a solution.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, after hearing five days of evidence, said he wanted to see if the engineer and surveyor could agree a way forward for both sides.

The judge said the experts would approach the matter in terms of seeking a functioning, working resolution, whereas if the court has to decide the issue one side would end up losing.

He said he would also have to take everything in to account, including testimony before the court and he would have to decide who was being reasonable and who was being unreasonable.

Mr Justice Kearns, who at the outset of the case had given an “11th hour opportunity” to both sides to settle, said it was very undesirable that after 12 days of litigation — six days in the Circuit Court and five days in the High Court — that there would be a total humiliation for one side or the other.

The judge had previously warned James and Anne Madigan of Askintinny near Clogga Beach in Co Wicklow, and their neighbours Kathleen Maureen Rueter, with her daughter and son Marian and Sean Rueter, that costs in the High Court could run in to hundreds of thousands of euro.

The case is before the High Court by way of an appeal from the Circuit Court which last year found in favour of James and Anne Madigan and awarded them a total of €5,000 damages for trespass and nuisance and said they were entitled to a right of way on to the laneway for the purpose of maintaining their hedgerow.

Neighbours Kathleen Maureen Rueter and Marian and Sean Rueter who run a caravan park near the beach have appealed that decision to the High Court.

The court heard that an open offer has been made by caravan park owners, the Rueters, to settle the case, which includes €20,000 contribution towards legal costs previously incurred.

The court heard yesterday that Mr Corrigan and Mr Power had brokered an agreement in 2012 between the Rueters and Madigans and a boundary was agreed.

The proposed settlement solution involved giving some Rueter land at the corner to the Madigans, with an easement allowing mobile homes to pass over it.