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Everitt Road neighbourhood dispute

A rather unusual community dispute, prolonged and convoluted, so much so it generated much media attention. As many as seven families in the Joo Chiat street were involved, with the police, lawyers, the courts and even an MP being drawn into the dispute.

Background
Everitt Road is located in the Joo Chiat area in the east of Singapore. It is the site of an on-going dispute among seven families living in freehold terrace houses worth more than S$1 million each. The seven families claimed that members of the Chan family from 130B Everitt Road had been abusive, antagonistic, crude and inconsiderate to them. The Chan family counter-claimed that they retaliated according to how they were treated by the others.

Tensions began about 11 years ago in 1993. A dispute arose over limited parking space between three families: the Chans, the Gans across the road (130C Everitt Road) and a third family. With two cars each, the three families needed to park their second cars along the road outside. They started reserving the space by placing buckets and brooms. Even after the parking dispute was settled by removing the objects, the antagonism remained.

In the following years, the Chans' cars were scratched, verbal abuse was traded, and harassment, such as blocking the path of cars, took place. Neighbours stopped being civil. Photographic and video evidences were collected against each other, all in the name of retaliation and tit-for-tat revenge.

Description
The unusual dispute became public on Tuesday, 3 October 2002, following a very distressful and almost chaotic weekend for the quarrelling neighbours. The police were called in 11 times between Friday and Sunday to pacify the agitated neighbours. The dispute came to a head on Saturday morning when Chan Cheng Koon, 67 and his daughter, Soo Yin, came out of their house to taunt Gan Yew Wah, 41, as he was driving out of the street. Although Gan ignored them, the Chans proceeded to walk to his parents' house two doors away to continue the harassment. They taunted Gan's father to come out of his house, leading the Gans to call the police. The same afternoon, Gan's father challenged Chan to a fist fight, but the fight was diffused.  That night, Gan complained that the spotlight from the Chans' house shone directly into his children's room, affecting their sleep. The police were called to settle the issue, but once they were gone, the spotlight was turned back on again. Frustrated and agitated by the Chans' behaviour, on the night of 2 October 2002, 16 of the residents marched into the office of Mr. Chan Soo Sen, ward MP for Joo Chiat, to complain about the Chans. The MP informed the residents that he would discuss the matter with the police and advised them to seek legal advice to solve the issue.

Following the media reports in early October, the Chans started filming their neighbours' every move with their video camera, causing them great annoyance and uneasiness. In retaliation, the Gans installed a new security camera which filmed the Chans' front gate. By the end of the October 2002, MP Chan Soo Sen was unable to mediate the conflict as all parties refused to improve the relationship. Relations among the neighbours took a turn for the worse. The Tay family, who live directly behind the Chans at 118 Everitt Road, started legal proceedings against them. Madam Cheong Siew Ying, 38, accused Chan of harassment and of watching and tailing her family constantly.

Legal developments
On 30 October 2002, the warring neighbours went to the Subordinate Courts amidst heightened publicity surrounding their dispute. Since it was first reported, the case had generated great public interest over members of the neighbourhood, who were willing to take each other to court over a dispute gone ugly. Some members of the public visited Everitt Road themselves, and some were even seen outside the Subordinate Courts in the hope of seeing the neighbours in action. The Chans and the Tays went for a closed-door hearing at the Subordinate Courts' Primary Dispute Resolution Centre. At the end of the hearing, the judge ordered that all parties concerned observe a one-month cooling-off period to try to settle the matter amicably. However, by the end of the month, the matter was not settled. Thus, in early December 2002, the district judge gave the Chans and the Tays an extra two weeks, till 19 December, to sort out their differences. By 14 December 2002, two more families, the Gans and the Lohs (of 136B Everitt Road) had filed magistrate's complaints against the Chans for harassment and being a nuisance.

All these families turned up for an eight-hour mediation sessions on 19 December before the chief mediator, Dr Joseph Ozawa, Senior Director of the Family and Juvenile Justice Centre. At the end of the sessions, Chan apologised to his neighbours but there were doubts and skepticism over the sincerity of his apology. A second round of mediation was set on 6 January 2003, where all parties were expected back in court. The saga took another twist when Chan applied for a court order on 31 December 2002 to stop his neighbours from talking to the press until it is over. His application was dismissed by District Judge Tey Tsun Hang, who allowed the media to continue reporting the case and ordered Chan to pay the costs of the hearing as well.

In the second mediation session which lasted ten hours, a final "peace" statement was issued, with the Chan family extending their apologies to the others. All complaints made against them were then withdrawn.


Continuation of disupute
Despite the declaration of truce, the feud persisted throughout 2003. The Chans continued to shine more spotlights on the Gan's home after midnight, prompting the Gan family to install mirrors in front of their house to deflect the glare from the extra spotlights. In January 2004, Chan was separately charged in court for causing distress to two of his female neighbours, Teo Suan Moy, 39, and Chua Soo Hui, 24. In separate incidents, Chan was accused of insulting behaviour, making vulgar gestures and using abusive language towards the women. If convicted, Mr Chan faces a fine of up to $2,000 on each charge under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act.



Author
Nureza Ahmad



References 
Everitt Road case - 2 more families join in court fight. (2002, December 14). The Straits Times.

Everitt Road man denies charge. (2004, February 28). The Straits Times.

Lee, H.C. (2002, October 29). Neighbourhood battle moves to the courts. The Straits Times.

Lee, H.C. (2002, November 3). Tired of reality TV? Try the Everitt road show. The Straits Times.

Lum, S. (2002, October 31). Judge gives neighbours one month to cool off. The Straits Times.

Lum, S. (2003, January 4). Everitt Road man loses bid to gag neighbours. The Straits Times.

Lum, S. (2003, January 7). Peace deal struck in Everitt Road spat. The Straits Times.

Lum, S. (2004, January 10). Everitt Road man charged. The Straits Times.

Lum, S., & Yeow, K.C. (2002, December 20). He said sorry to us, but will he stop? The Straits Times.

Lum, S., & Vijayan, K.C. (2002, December 5). Cool off in 2 weeks or meet in court- Judge. The Straits Times.

$6,000 later, no gag order and no let-up. (2003, October 6). The Straits Times.

Vijayan, K.C. (2002, October 3). Residents up in arms over nuisance neighbour. The Straits Times.

The information in this article is valid as at 2004 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history on the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Ethnic Communities
Social problems--Singapore
Community life--Singapore
People and communities>>Social conflict>>Conflict resolution

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>> Joo Chiat


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