Article content continued

“Instead, Ms. Sun took the law, wrongfully, into her own hands.”

Photo by Arlen Redekop / PNG

The two neighbours own adjoining properties in the 14900-block of 57th Avenue in Panorama Village, Surrey, that are subject to a 1995 restrictive covenant containing guidelines with a diagram identifying a “privacy fence” at the back between the various lots.

There is also a 24-inch “access easement” registered in 1997 that gives the Gibsons “non-exclusive, full and free right, liberty and easement.”

Described as a sophisticated businesswoman with several rental properties, Sun purchased the Panorama property on Aug. 8, 2008.

She lived in the home for a time before renting it to two tenants, including her former husband who lived in one unit with their son.

Gibson, who by the time of the trial had retired as city clerk for New Westminster, purchased her property on Sept. 22, 2010, and lived there with her husband, Glenn Fyfe, and their son.

At the time, there was an existing back fence between the two homes and concrete paving stones on the Gibsons’ property and the easement.

The previous owner, Anita Desjardins, who had owned the home since August 1999, had installed a wood shed on the paving stones.

She testified that in 1999 a six-foot fence ran along the back boundary and that after Sun purchased her home she never complained about the back fence, the shed or a front fence.

Gibson and Fyfe removed the shed after they moved in and replaced it with a fireplace on the paving stones with patio chairs, a quiet refuge shielded by the back fence.