A furious father has been ordered to fork out nearly £20,000 to his neighbours after trying to retrieve the football which his sobbing son had booted into their garden.
Chaim Adler, 35, stormed into the garden of Warren Bergson and his wife Dr. Edel McAndrew-Bergson's home in Golders Green, North London, and started 'snarling' at and mocking the couple following a long-running feud.
After the pair allegedly refused to hand over the football, the dad returned to the property the following day to try and push his way into their flat while 'aggressively' demanding that they return his son's ball.
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Bergson, a lawyer, and his psychologist wife then launched legal proceedings against Adler and sued him for trespass and harassment - and a judge has now awarded them a whopping £19,800 in damages.
It's certainly an expensive price to pay for a football.
Giving his version of events, Adler told the Daily Mail: "[Bergson] shouted at my son and left him in tears. He was very upset and I went round to the house to speak to him and get the ball back. I tried to ask nicely."
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Judge Stephen Hellman said that although Adler, a boss at a fire alarm company, had been provoked by the refusal to return the ball, he had gone too far and displayed 'aggressive, humiliating and intimidating' behaviour towards the couple.
"This behaviour goes beyond that which merely causes upset," he said.
In a previous ruling following a trial and judgement which took place in 2022, the judge explained that the court case was a result of an 'neighbours' dispute that got out of hand'.
The dispute first began when Bergson - who passed away after the court trial - moved in to a small one-bedroom garden flat with his wife next door to Adler's parent's back in 2017.
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Zavy Adler, 73, and his wife Esther, 69 - who had lived in their home for 40 years - soon became involved in several spats with their new neighbours which started in August of that year.
Dr. McAndrew-Bergson noticed water gushing into her garden from the direction of the Adler's property, which turned out to be the result of an overflowing paddling pool which the Adler's grandkids had been playing in.
A confrontation between the neighbours ensued and the Bergsons say this marked the start of a football being repeatedly 'crashed' against their fence every weekend in a bid to 'intimidate' them.
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The psychologist said that she and her motoring law specialist husband resorted to signing up for memberships at the British Library so that they had somewhere to go to get some peace and quiet.
Tensions finally boiled over a long-weekend in May 2018, when the couple had two fiery confrontations with the Adlers.
Sick of the constant noise of the ball being booted at the fence, Dr. McAndrew-Bergson decided to grab it and hurl it into another neighbour's garden when it landed on her grass again.
On another occasion, her late husband confiscated the ball after being pushed to the end of his patience and took it inside of his flat - only for a 'small army' of Adler family members to invade their garden.
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The court heard that the couple were forced to shut the door in the dad's face as he attempted to barge his way inside their home, before he then began 'baring his teeth and growling' at them as he banged on the door.
In what the judge described as 'haunting' evidence, Dr. McAndrew-Bergson recalled how her husband had been surrounded by Adler's relatives over the weekend and was ridiculed.
Adler denied any wrongdoing during the proceedings and said he was simply a dad trying to protect his young son, who had been shouted at and reduced to tears when he asked for his ball back.
He claimed he had a 'back and forth' with the late lawyer in the doorway of his flat, but that Bergson shut the door and did not return the ball.
Following a trial in November 2022, Judge Hellman ruled that Adler had harassed the Bergsons and had trespassed on their property when 'at least part of his body' had entered their flat during one of the incidents.
"He was angry because they had twice reduced his eight-year-old son to tears," the judge said. "The depth of his anger came across very clearly when he was giving evidence."
Judge Hellman said that both incidents were provoked to some extent - on one occasion by 'throwing the ball over the fence and on another retained a ball' - but Adler's response was way over the top.
"I accept he was angry because they had upset his son, but he has not shown me that his course of conduct was reasonable and I am satisfied that it was not," he added.
The case returned to court last week where Judge Hellman announced the amount in damages that Adler owed.
Mr Adler was ordered to pay £8,800 compensation to Dr. McAndrew-Bergson and another £11,000 to her husband's estate, following his death after the initial trial.
He also ordered Mr Adler's parents to pay £1,700 compensation to reflect interference with the Bergsons' right of way over a passage leading to their flat, which had been frequently obstructed by building materials.
The case will come back to court again at a later date for a decision on who pays the lawyers' bills for the dispute.
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