The Blacks lived in a semi detached house next door to the Whites. The Blacks started to build an extension which the Whites alleged was built in part on their land. It was certainly built over the line of the party wall. However, the dilapidated fence was in place when the Whites moved into the house and the Blacks extension was built inside the line of that admittedly crooked fence. The Blacks alleged the fence had been in the same position for more than 12 years.
The Whites sued the Blacks seeking to have them demolish their extension. The Blacks undertook not to complete their extension pending resolution of the claim which left them with a partially finished unusable structure and with their builders off site. Neither side could really afford to take the matter through to trial and certainly the Blacks could not afford to both litigate to trial and finish their extension.
Mediation was proposed and agreed. Despite considerable enmity between the parties a settlement was agreed whereby the Blacks were permitted to keep their extension, the line of the fence was defined accurately on a scale plan at a position that both parties could live with, the Blacks agreed to build a new fence along that line at their cost and to pay the Whites’ costs.
From the Blacks point of view the matter was resolved much more swiftly than by going all the way to trial and so they were able to afford the litigation and importantly to finish their extension much sooner than might otherwise have been the case. If the claim had gone to trial they ran the risk of the Court ordering that their extension be demolished. As for the Whites, they had the boundaries properly defined with some give in their favour, a proper fence between them and their neighbours at no cost and had had their legal costs met.
If the matter had gone to Court the Judge could not have redrawn the boundaries and either one or other of the parties would have lost entirely and paid their own legal costs as well as their opponent’s legal costs. Predicting who would win was high risk for the parties and their lawyers. By mediating, as well as resolving the matter more swiftly and keeping costs to a minimum, each party achieved a partial victory, avoided the risk of a disastrous outcome and both were able to hold their head high in the community.
