William H. Macy, favorite character actor and husband of Felicity Huffman, received his own lawsuit this week. It is over that age-old issue between neighbors: trees on a property, and why they were cut down.
Pierce Brown, the neighbor who brought the lawsuit, is seeking $600,000 in damages after claiming that Macy’s landscapers took down some old trees on Browncs property, according to People. That may seem like a steep price for some landscapers allegedly getting a little too enthusiastic with their work, but the homes in the neighborhood of Outpost Estates in the Hollywood Hills go for between $2 million and $17 million. Macy and Huffman reportedly listed their investment property situated near their main property for $15,000 to $20,000 in monthly rent just a few months after Huffman did less than a fortnight of time and paid a fine for her role in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal. We are already in the land of sticker shock.
Also, per People, Brown’s list of damages is long: “loss of property value, loss of use and enjoyment of his property, a loss of privacy, an increase in noise, as well as emotional distress, irritation, annoyance, and discomfort.” As ever with these things, I wish they came with an itemized receipt. How much exactly of the $600,000 is for annoyance? How much for irritation?
Brown’s lawyer Benjamin L. Caplan painted an elaborate picture of landscape malfeasance in the filing, which landed at the Superior Court of Los Angeles County last week, according to People. “Macy’s workers then destroyed and removed or seriously damaged several healthy, decades-old mature pine trees and other vegetation from the Brown Property.”
“The pine trees and other vegetation were located well inside of the Brown Property line,” the filing reportedly reads, claiming the damage was not just to all things green, but to fences too. “In accessing the Brown Property, Macy’s workers damaged the gate that connected the two properties.”
Brown, who was on vacation at the time, per the complaint obtained by People, alleges that there was “damage to and destabilization of the hillside itself,” so much so that the actor knocked on Brown’s door the following month to chat about the hillside in ill-repair.
“Macy acknowledged the entry of his workmen onto the Brown Property, their lack of permission to do so, and their destruction and removal of, and damage to, the Brown’s trees and vegetation,” Caplan claimed. ABC reports Macy described the incident as an honest accident.
You know what they say: Fences may make good neighbors, but felled trees on another’s property make war.
