‘No right to cut down neighbour’s trees’

A systems engineer had no entitlement to cut down his next-door neighbour’s 50ft-high trees, a judge in the Circuit Civil Court ruled yesterday.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke said Colin Kilgannon should have followed his legal team and surveyor’s advice to discuss with neighbour Dermot P McArdle where the boundary between their properties lay.

Judge Groarke said it was most regrettable that Mr Kilgannon, of Sans Souci, Kilgobbin Road, Stepaside, Dublin, purposefully chose to ignore that advice and decided to rely only on maps he had, showing that the 50ft-high trees, allegedly causing structural damage to his house, were on his property.

Mr McArdle, a company manager who is suing Mr Kilgannon and his wife Jelena, said that in September last he had been trying to sell his property at The Pine Trees, Kilgobbin Road, and had been shocked to find that Mr Kilgannon had carried out the tree felling.

Judge Groarke yesterday only ruled on where the boundary was and whether or not Mr Kilgannon had trespassed on Mr McArdle’s property. The issue of damages will be dealt with at a later date.

The judge said he was satisfied a fence had been erected in the 1960s by a previous owner of Sans Souci, with Mr McArdle’s agreement, after they had determined where the boundary was, relying on maps.

Mr McArdle had then planted the trees in 1968 on his side of the property.