'NEIGHBOURHOOD vigilante activist' Eedra Zey has been landed with a $320,000 bill over a legal battle which began with a couple of parking tickets in Lake Macquarie.
Her 'bizarre litigation conduct' has been lambasted in the NSW District Court where she first brought proceedings against police for allegations of trespass.
The police turned up at her doorstep only to ask her to move her car, the court has heard.
Ms Zey had parked her car in front of a gateway and school access point in Lake Macquarie in September, 2019.
She, and others, had taken exception to route the the heavy trucks were using, so she left her car there on purpose "to pursue an agenda of neighbourhood vigilantism by civil protest", Acting District Court Judge Leonard Levy SC said in his principal judgement on July 19.
Public nuisance
Technically, it was conceded, there was trespass to her property, during the 'brief time' it took the two police officers to leave - the walk from the front door to her gate, on Saturday, September 21, 2019.
The two were acting "in the public interest and in accordance with their public duties" Judge Levy said.
"(They) went to her premises for the lawful purpose of seeking her assistance to abate a public nuisance which she had created by allowing her vehicle to be left in a position of obstruction and disruption to vehicular traffic at the access and egress point of a school building site," he said.
Initially she was offered what Judge Levy described in his recent judgement on costs, handed down on August 23, as "on any reasonable view, generous compensation' of $5,000, which she refused.
She also refused a series of subsequent offers of $25,000 and then $30,000.
That was after inviting settlement in a letter in which Ms Zey offered the "opportunity to acknowledge and seek forgiveness" for the actions of the officers that "behaved like thugs".
'Bold assertions'
The letter, sent in January, 2022 included some "grandiose statements and boldly expressed assertions", Judge Levy said, including allegations that the police officers had acted with "demonstrated wanton disregard", had caused $7,667.86 worth of damage to her vehicle; and had ignored a 'no trespassing' sign on her property.
They had also allegedly broken a locked gate, had committed a "break in", had acted offensively and with bullying behaviour whilst armed, had behaved "appallingly", in breach of common law, statute, and "human decency", and with "incompetence".
She alleged those actions by police officers were in the nature of a personal "vendetta", and that their aim was to "intimidate" her.
None of those allegations were made good or sustained during the legal proceedings which followed, Judge Levy said, which included 11 listing days, which, together with other associated costs, generated 17 invoices for the defendant, the State of NSW, totalling $344,132.
A judgement was entered in favour of Ms Zey, given the brief, technical 'trespass', but she was awarded the nominal amount of $1, not the $350,000 that she was seeking.
Pyrrhic victory
"The irresistible conclusion is, as was submitted by the defendant, that the plaintiff's victory was pyrrhic," Judge Levy said.
Ms Zey's conduct was 'disentitling', he said, based on the fact ,firstly, that she had 'permitted a public nuisance' by parking her car in front of school gates, and the entry to a construction zone.
That occurred within the context of her conscious objection to heavy trucks using the suburban road in question, the court has heard.
She then disappeared at the end of the fourth day of a hearing and did not re-engage with the legal process except to file a complex notice of motion, which she then did not appear to argue for.
The court and the defendant were then forced to take "extraordinary measures'' in her continuing absence to afford her procedural fairness, Judge Levy said.
Many of the matters before the court had to be conducted in her "unexplained absence", Judge Levy said, leading to a considerable waste of the court's time and public resources.
Ms Zey was seeking $350,000, Judge Levy said, but instead only received $1, which she could have avoided if she "had not unreasonably refused to engage with and accept a series of reasonable settlement offers".
The State of NSW sought reimbursement of costs in the amount of $344,132, plus interest of $20,818, bringing the total to $364,950, but with a discount, including interest and GST, that was reduced to $320,000.
