Robert Flach, managing director of specialist insurance investment adviser Argenta Private Capital, and his wife Helena have won against translator Celia Tan in a longstanding dispute between the west London neighbours.
The Times reported that the row stemmed from Tan’s complaint that the Flachs’ gutter dumped rainwater onto her property’s garden, leading her to rip the gutter out, among other forms of retaliation over the past 15 years.
Areas of contention included the boundary separating the two properties, with Tan responding by repeatedly affixing or painting her door number on the Flachs’ side of the fence.
Judge Alan Saggerson ruled in favour of the couple, dismissing Tan’s claim and ordering her to pay the Flachs £150,000 in legal costs.
The Central London county court judge described Tan’s actions as having been spiteful and punitive, resulting in a toxic atmosphere in their location.
Tan was also found to have been an unreliable witness who “was clearly just making things up as she went along” and “paying no regard to logic or reality”.
In Saggerson’s view, the claimant is passive-aggressive and “psychologically incapable of acting reasonably”. The judge, who believes the claim for damages was largely an exercise in fiction, also cited Tan’s “almost indescribable silliness”.
Tan, who also complained about drumming practice sessions by the couple’s daughter, is appealing the dismissal to the High Court.
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