By Karen Blackledge
DANVILLE — Feathers flew during a heated exchange in a civil complaint hearing in the court of the Montour County District Judge Thursday over damage caused by free-range chickens that allegedly roamed into a neighbor’s yard.
“I can’t listen to screaming. It doesn’t help. Let’s stick to the facts and not personal opinions of each other,” Montour County District Judge Marvin Shrawder told Paul St. Clair of 19 Hillside Rd. who is suing John and Kerry Nichol, of 22 Hillside Rd., for their chickens allegedly destroying his flower beds. St. Clair wants $820 in damages.
Shrawder didn’t make a decision, saying he wanted to “drive out and take a look” at the properties.
He has five days to make a decision.
“I have never seen my chickens on his property,” John Nichol said. “He called me once about a little hole that could have been dug by any animal or person.”
Kerry Nichol said St. Clair has a food dish on property. “You can’t lure animals onto your property and complain about it,” she said.
The St. Clair property is about a half-mile down the road from the Nichol property. The Nichols said they have about 50 free-range chickens.
St. Clair complained the Nichol chickens have been coming onto his property for nearly two years. He said he sent them a registered letter dated March 16, which they refused to accept about the situation. “It’s an everyday occurrence,” he said.
St. Clair is seeking the judgment to replace bulbs he said didn’t bloom and mulch. He said he has 31 chickens of his own on his property. John Nichol said he never saw flowers underneath bushes where St. Clair said he had bulbs.
A friend of St. Clair’s testified he had seen chickens in St. Clair’s flower beds.
St. Clair said he shot a rooster on his property last week.
Of pictures St. Clair had, Kerry Nichol said she didn’t even know that was her chicken. She asked why the chickens would go all the way to the St. Clair property when they can go across the road to their neighbor’s property.
“You live in the country. This is not about chickens,” she told St. Clair.
St. Clair said John Nichol told him to shoot their chickens if they come onto his property, which he said he has done. “Why should I shoot someone’s chickens when it’s not the chicken’s fault,” he said.
