Dealing with noisy neighbors is never an easy situation, as Cilla Carden knows all too well. Her frustration with her neighbors’ activities led her to take an extraordinary step: she brought the issue before the Supreme Court of Australia.
Cilla, a massage therapist from Perth, Australia, found herself at odds with her neighbors due to their frequent basketball games and barbecues. She claimed these activities disrupted her ability to enjoy her own backyard.
Sometimes, settling into a new neighborhood can be a challenge, but for Cilla, a vegan, her issue went beyond typical neighborly disputes. The smells of barbecue and the noise of children playing basketball became unbearable for her, prompting her to turn to the legal system for a solution.
“It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil, it’s been unrest, I haven’t been able to sleep,” Carden told 9News in 2019.
Carden said the smell of fish being barbecued next door was particularly offensive to her. “They’ve put it there so I smell fish. All I can smell is fish. I can’t enjoy my backyard, I can’t go out there,” she explained.
Believing the situation to be deliberate, she took her neighbors to court. When her initial claims were dismissed, she attempted to appeal to the Supreme Court, but her appeal was also rejected.
“It’s deliberate, that’s what I told the courts, it’s deliberate,” Carden said.
Despite her claims, her neighbors maintained that they had taken steps to address her concerns. When 9News visited the defendant’s property, they reported that the barbecue had been removed and the children were no longer playing basketball in the yard.
News of the unusual court case garnered significant attention, and some Australians responded with a tongue-in-cheek protest. A Facebook event was created to organize a community barbecue near Carden’s home, celebrating what participants called a “good old Aussie tradition.”
The event quickly gained traction, with 24,000 people expressing interest. However, police issued a warning, and Carden’s lawyer threatened legal action, leading to the cancellation of the gathering.
Though many assumed Carden’s complaints were motivated by opposition to meat-eating, her lawyer clarified that she has “no objection to people eating meat and no objection to people having barbecues.”
Cilla Carden’s decision to take her neighbors to court has sparked mixed reactions. While some empathize with her struggles, others find her actions extreme. What’s your take on her decision?