Cilla Carden, a vegan massage therapist from Girrawheen in the Western Australian city of Perth, thought her neighbors were using a barbecue in their backyard as a front in a long-running war between neighbors. As she said: “They’ve put [the barbecue] there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish. I can’t enjoy my back yard; I can’t go out there.”
She believes that the barbecuing isn’t just a family preparing their supper, but a part of a campaign to irritate her. That’s why she filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the state of Western Australia, saying that her neighbors, Toan Vu with his wife and kids, breached residential laws.
While Carden claims that all she “wanted…is to live my life in peace,” the lawsuit she filed alleged that it was more than merely the smell of grilling fish that disturbed her. She took issue with cigarette smoke in their garden, too as the fumes waft over into her yard. She’s also frustrated by the sound of the neighbors’ kids playing basketball and making noise in the yard. According to The Guardian, the legal saga has dragged on since August 2017.
Carden sought relief from the onslaught of noise and smells in the courts, but her case was thrown out by a tribunal and a Supreme Court judge that sided with the neighbors.
Nevertheless, Carden was not ready to give up yet and filed an appeal. That was dismissed by the court as well. While Carden might not be satisfied with the outcome of her legal case, as Australia’s News reported, her neighbor removed the barbecue from his yard and banned his kids from playing basketball. Carden, however, plans to continue her legal fight.
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