http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Stor...8-014/page.asp
Amending Fences


There’s a lot of ways one could describe their multi-million dollar dream home. Some would call it a palace, an oasis, or maybe even a little slice of heaven. The Sammut’s, a couple in Etobicoke, have a less than pleasant description - a Russian prison.

Their home in the Islington and Dundas area has been enveloped by a 7 metre high fence after a court order forced the Islington Golf Club to fix the problem of stray balls careening into the home on a regular, unsettling basis.

Their solution - the fence - has left them more than a little teed off.

“I didn't think it was possible,” Pauline Sammut said. “In Russia maybe. “We couldn't believe it. It looks like they're putting up a jail.”

Close to 2,000 golf balls have flown into the Sammuts' front and backyards over the course of their six-year battle with the course.

They've broken windows, dented their garage and even decapitated a statue.

A judge ruled that the club had to pay damages and prevent balls from hitting the house in the future. So up went the fence, and down went the couple’s already sagging morale.

“I think they're just being spiteful. That's all it is,” Pauline adds. “They are not trying to stop the balls, because my garage doors have been bombarded and they will still be bombarded.”

Still, not everyone agrees. "The golf course is most gracious as far as all the other neighbours are concerned," claimed Vera Kircheis, who lives in the area.

But isn't the ball problem interfering with her neighbour's home? "Ah, but I would never have built this house," she riposted.

The fence is to be completed this week, but the Sammuts say the fight is far from over.

They meet with their lawyer, the golf club's lawyer and a judge on Wednesday.