Alex Trelinski
THE Valencian Superior Court(TSJCV) has rejected a €60,000 compensation bid by an Antella resident for being kept awake at night by a barking dog.
The man was originally awarded €3,000 by a lower court in a ruling against Antella City Council for not doing anything about the dog which stayed on a house terrace located in front of his property.
He complained several times since 2010 to his local council and after getting no response, took them to court in 2018.
The resident wanted a bigger compensation payout from the authority’s insurers and also requested the confiscation of the dog due to the ‘acoustic nuisance’ it caused.
The TSJCV said that it was not clear how the violation of his rights would be solved by removing the animal which was ‘an undoubtedly punitive measure’.
It did agree with him that the council was in the wrong by failing in their obligation to deal with his complaint and sided with witness statements and acoustic measures obtained by the appellant.
Nevertheless, the judge kept the fine at €3,000- a penalty in ‘similar’ cases- despite the man saying that mental and physical issues caused by the barking led him to suffer from depression.
The judge said that there was absolutely no evidence to show that the excess noise was linked to his medical condition.
The man’s original €3,000 award has also been slashed because as the ‘losing’ appellant, he has to pay the legal costs of the opposing side.
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