By November 1996, a Travis County couple’s neighbors had mounted halogen lights on their house and aimed them into the couple’s windows, court records show. When the couple built shields to block the glare, the neighbors brought out portable lights to get around them. A jury found the neighbors liable for nuisance and intentional infliction of emotional distress and awarded the couple $202,000, and an Austin appeals court upheld those damages in 2000.
The only way into the couple’s property was a private easement across the neighbors’ lot. The trouble started in the spring of 1996, about a year after the couple moved in, when they decided to build a gate where the easement reached their land.
The neighbors objected that with the gate closed, vehicles headed for the couple’s house would have to turn around on their property. When the husband started building it, he testified, the neighbor challenged him to a fight and threatened to sue him. The couple put the gate in anyway. In October, the neighbor told the wife he would take legal action if it was not removed…