Ask the Law Guy

For the past three months my brother's neighbor everyone along the cul-de-sac he lives near to clean up their yards so he can sell his house. Needless to say it did not go over well. He also asked my brother's neighbors to move their mailboxes, which are in front of his house since the postal carrier does not come in the cul-de-sac. The neighbor was recently arrested for attacking my brother who was cleaning out his ditch and had blocked a neighbor from leaving his own driveway. Since all of this has happenned the neighbor sits out every night and video tapes all the neighbors' comings and goings. I went to visit my brother and was also video taped as well. My brother has two small children who love playing outside. Is there anything that can be done to stop him from video taping everyone's move?

I suggest ignoring the neighbor and seeing if he gets tired of taping everyone. He is doing it to annoy his fellow residents and if he sees it getting to you or your brother it will just encourage him.

As long as he does not cross the line into being a Peeping Tom (secretly peeping into windows) his taping is legal. As long as he stays on his own property or in public areas he can tape anything he likes.

If he threatens or harasses your brother or his children, your brother could seek a "civil no-contact order" under Ch. 50C of the N.C. General Statutes.

My husband and I have been living in our home for 4 years now, in Florida. Our neighbor makes it a point to come over and ask us for money. He had been doing it at least once a month. My husband has told him repeatedly we do not keep money on us. I have asked him not to come over anymore to ask us for money that I thought it was rude. Now he is asking our son when he comes over to visit if he has any money for him. My question is: is there anything we can do to keep him from coming over and bothering us? Isn't this considered harassment? I would like something done about it, but am unsure how to approach it.

"Harrassment" is not necessarily illegal. If you have asked your neighbor not to come on your property, you might be able to charge him with trespassing if he comes on your property. Keeping him from approaching you in public would require the kind of restraining order that celebrities use against paparazzi.

I generally respond to panhandlers by just saying "no" rather than giving the excuse that I don't have any money. My hope is that if they understand that I have no intention of giving them money under any circumstances, they will bother someone else. Maybe this will work with your neighbor.

A friend put fish hooks under his dash, to prevent his stereo from being stolen again. Sure enough about 2 days later he came out and found a man with his hand stuck under his dash. (He was trying to steal the stereo). When the police came, they arrested the man, and then they arrested my friend for setting up a "Man Trap". Can they do this??

We don't have a similar law in North Carolina, but in general it is not legal to booby-trap your property to prevent theft. I don't have any sympathy for the stereo thief, but real life is not "Home Alone." A person who set a trap could be sued by the injured person or prosecuted for assault. There are numerous cases where a person rigged a gun to shoot any intruder and when an intruder was killed, the owner had serious legal problems. Booby-traps are illegal because (in the case of a gun) the person setting it is effectively imposing a death sentence on someone just for housebreaking.

I hope your friend can avoid a conviction, but he needs to find another way to defend his stereo.

I recently was involved in an accident with a Forsyth County vehicle. The driver of the vehicle BACKED UP an offramp, hitting my vehicle. The police came, took an accident report, the driver admitted fault, and the police report states that he backed into me, so no question of fault. Forsyth County is self-insured (under a certain level, I believe), and the lady I spoke with in the county said she would turn it over to their Third Party Administrator. Right after Christmas, I received a letter from the TPA, stating that Forsyth County was asserting their governmental immunity, and declined payment for all damages. I filed this with my insurance company, and they also called the county to see about the county possibly reimbursing me for my deductible, since they are clearly at fault in the accident. The county said that they are sticking with their governmental immunity, and will not pay a dime. I want to have this filed under my uninsured motorist coverage, as they are self-insured (which really means NOT insured below a certain amount, which I fall under), but insurance appears set to file this under my collision, which has a deductibe of $500, compared to $100 for uninsured.

Do I have any recourse at all against the county? Against the driver personally? Can I require that this be filed under uninsured instead of collision with my insurance company? Do I have ANY options at all, or am I completely left holding the bag on this one? Legal, maybe; but ethical, no way!

Governments are immune from lawsuits for negligence. Ironically while government requires motorists to have insurance in order to legally drive, governments do not have to pay claims for vehicles operated by government employees. One option may be to sue the driver directly.

Check with the state Insurance Commissioners Office to see if you can make a claim under uninsured motorist coverage. I think the answer is no.

We have a 42 acre farm in Orange County, NC. We have horses on the farm, young ones that we are training for future trail horses. We have taken advantage of a NC Wildlife program to maintain our property for wildlife preservation, including having a NC Wildlife representative prepare a detailed 20 yr plan for wildlife management on our property. In accordance with local and state laws, we also use the land for deer hunting. Our land is clearly posted, "no hunting, no trespassing." We have repeatedly encountered hunters, from a near-by hunt club, who access our property without our permission. These hunters also use dogs for deer hunting; their dogs routinely run through our property chasing deer. Some of these hunters carry their weapons while trespassing on our property, some park on the state road accessing our property while holding their guns (this is illegal in Orange county), and some just stand or sit on the state road, watching/listening to their dogs.

We have four primary concerns regarding the behavior of the hunters:

1. safety - one of their dogs or gun shots might potentially frighten one of our horses, resulting in injury to either ourselves or one of our visitors,

2. trespassers with guns, safety again,

3. running their dogs through our land disturbs the deer on our land, making it difficult to hunt on our land peacefully, and

4. safety again, if we are hunting on our property any trespassors are putting theirselves at a serious risk for accidental injury.

We have communicated our concerns to the hunters; their responses, as you can imagine, vary greatly....

"we've been hunting here for years" (we purchased the property two years ago),
"we can't control our dogs"(if someone is injured as a result of the actions of one of their dogs, are they not legally responsible for their dog's actions?),
"i didn't see a posted sign" (after walking within TWO feet of the big yellow sign),
and my favorite... "our hunt club president said that the posted sign just meant that we couldn't hunt up here in the field, but as long as we hunt back here in the woods, it's ok" (field, woods, all our property and all are posted!)

What legal recourse do we have to prevent/minimize these hunters who are trespassing and running dogs on our land?

Any advice you might offer would be greatly appreciated!!

You have the legal right to insist that the hunters stay off your land. It is the responsibility of the dog's owner to make sure the dog stays out of posted private property.

You have a few options:

You can contact a magistrate to seek a criminal warrant charging the hunter with trespassing,
If trespassers are repeat offenders you could sue them in civil court.

Obviously neither option is perfect. The penalties for trespass are fairly low and a civil lawsuit could be costly in time and money. If you have posted "no trespassing" signs prominently, the only thing I could suggest is getting suggestions from the wildlife program.


				*Ask the Law Guy*



	Home