A Campbell River man who used a jackhammer on his neighbour’s retaining wall following a contentious dispute between the two families has been ordered to pay more than $16,000 in damages.

The provincial court trial heard that Reno Pellegrin and his neighbours John and Sherri Wheeldon got along fine until the Wheeldons built a concrete retaining wall.

Due to a miscalculation of the property line and the spread of concrete, part of the wall ended up on Pellegrin’s property.

The wall then became a source of dispute between the two neighbours, with each claiming the other had committed various trespasses or nuisances.

The situation escalated in April 2014 when Pellegrin dumped about 20 pounds of dog feces on the property line. He believed it was on his side of the property, but it was not.

Pellegrin testified that he put the dog feces there as a message to the Wheeldons to stay off his property. He also claimed that the Wheeldons had regularly put garbage on his driveway and had once put a dead snake on the Pellegrins’ trampoline.

In her ruling on the case, provincial court Judge Catherine Crockett found there was no evidence to back up Pellegrin’s claims.

The judge found that the dumping of the dog feces occurred outside a legal time limit to award damages for such an action.

The Wheeldons asked Pellegrin to clean up the doggie mess and when he refused to do so, they contacted the city of Campbell River, which told them there was nothing to be done.

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