A hotel developer has won a six-year dispute with an 80-year-old shepherdess after complaining that her gate stopped his wife reversing her Land Rover out of the drive of their £1 million farmhouse.
Peter Leonard, 42, and wife Kelly, 46, sued their neighbour Muriel Whiston, a Charolais sheep breeder, after accusing her of being “abusive and aggressive” to visitors and delivery drivers at their four-bedroom Shropshire home, which comes with 33 acres.
Leonard, who is director of MM Capital, a Dublin-based hotel development business, bought Lower Fenemere Court for about £900,000 in 2017.
Peter and Kelly Leonard accused their neighbour of being “abusive and aggressive”
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Whiston’s family owned and farmed the land before the property was split in two in 1996, with Whiston moving into a neighbouring bungalow with its own parcel of land, Lower Fenemere Farm, to rear her sheep.
The Leonards, who also run a refuge for rescued rabbits at their property, clashed with Whiston in 2020 when she put new gates across a shared track at the entrance to her neighbouring smallholding. She also erected a sign insisting that they be kept shut “at all times” to stop her sheep escaping.
Leonard said the gate interfered with their right of way over the shared track and prevented delivery drivers from using the area beyond the gate for turning their vehicles.
He said that it stopped his wife from reversing her Land Rover Defender 130 out of their courtyard, forcing her to “engage in a multi-point turning manoeuvre to point in the right direction”.
The Leonards sued Whiston at Birmingham county court, asking Judge Sarah Watson to force their neighbour to remove her gate and sign. They said that in combination with her “abusive” behaviour, they formed an “unreasonable interference” with their right of way.
Whiston denied interfering with the right of way and insisted that she was within her rights to “politely” tell visitors that the gate should be opened only when necessary and shut afterwards.
Whiston countersued her neighbours in a bid to make them keep a door leading to their barn shut, to prevent their rescue animals spilling out and mixing with her flock.
Ruling in September 2024, the judge said that the wording of Whiston’s sign was unreasonable and must be replaced, but did not find that her behaviour towards her neighbours’ visitors was “abusive” or that the gate should be removed.
She directed that a new sign should read: “Lower Fenemere Farm and turning for Lower Fenemere Court. Please shut gate after use to prevent the escape of farm livestock.”
The judge banned Whiston from telling delivery drivers or other visitors not to use the track beyond the gate.
The Leonards bought Lower Fenemere Court for about £900,000 in 2017
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Whiston’s request for an injunction to force her neighbours to keep the door shut on the old milking parlour housing their rescue animals was rejected.
None of the parties were happy with that outcome so the row rumbled on, with both sides appealing parts of the ruling at the High Court.
Mr Justice Michael Green has now dismissed both sides’ challenges to the county court decision and upheld a ruling that Whiston must pay the massive legal costs of the case — likely to run well into six figures.
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He ruled that despite having lost on some issues, the Leonards were “clearly the winners in this case”.
“It is most regrettable that this matter could not be resolved out of court and that there has been so much time and money spent in relation to this dispute, quite out of proportion to the issues at stake,” he said.
“Having said that, I do recognise that there is no easy solution to the problems that have arisen as to the fair and reasonable operation and use of the right of way.
“Furthermore, I understand the parties have made a number of, ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to settle this dispute on terms satisfactory to both.”