Can a Single Tree Be a Spite Fence?
Spitefulness is the malicious urge to cause harm or discomfort. Sometimes a property owner who wants to harass an adjoining neighbor will build an over-tall fence or plant a row of trees that eventually will block the neighbor's view or cause other problems. Whether built or planted, these obstructions are called "spite fences" when intended to trouble a neighbor. However, according to a 2002 California case, a single tree doesn't constitute a fence. Does this Spark an idea?
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Trees as Fences
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In the 2002 appeal case of Wilson v. Handley, the California Torts website says, the Superior Court of Siskiyou County, California, adopted a "commonsense" meaning of the word "structure." The court decided that a row of trees "planted on or near the boundary line between adjoining parcels of land" constituted a structure but that a single tree did not.
Proving a Spite Fence Claim
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Proving that a spite fence comprised of trees or other plantings obstructs use, enjoyment and value of a property can be complicated and take years. That was the situation in the California case of Vanderpol v. Starr, which began in 2009 and concerned the Starrs planting "numerous" trees and shrubs to irk the Vanderpols. Asserting that trees aren't structures, the Starrs appealed the decision against them, which awarded monetary damages based on lost property value to the Vanderpols. The 2011 appeal trial brought the matter to an unhappy conclusion for both sides. The Starrs were ordered to keep their plantings trimmed to slightly less than 16 feet high. The court considered this sufficient resolution of the Vanderpols' complaint and dropped the previous court's award of monetary damages.
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Laws Against Spite
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States and municipalities around the nation have laws prohibiting fences and other structures built or planted to spite a neighbor. Spite fence laws require proof not only of height violations but also of malice with intent to harm another landowner. (Ref 2)
One historic spite fence arose in California before the advent of laws against such fences. Railroad baron Charles Crocker became angry when a neighbor refused to be bullied into selling him land adjoining Crocker's mansion. So Crocker built a 40-foot-tall fence along part of his property line that surrounded the neighbor's property on three sides, blocking air and light.
Another Spiteful Obstruction
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In 1882, Joseph Richardson built an apartment house that was 104 feet long and four stories tall, but only 5 feet deep. He did this to spite the developer of an adjacent apartment house who had offered to buy Richardson's property for $1,000 and refused the owner's price of $5,000. The narrow building blocked light to the windows of the other apartment house and became known as "Richardson's Spite House." A reprint of a 1929 article about the structure in The New York Architecture website notes that the buildings stairwells were so narrow that a person could not go up if another were coming down. Similar to the Crocker Spite Fence, the Richardson Spite House became a tourist attraction.
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