Looks like bad things come in trees for Kevin Costner.
The Hatfields & McCoys star, who's barely done reeling from his victorious legal scuffle with Stephen Baldwin over an oil-cleanup venture gone sour, could be headed back to court, thanks to one very unhappy neighbor—and some very verdant shrubbery.
Costner has been slapped with a lawsuit by a neighbor who claims that trees located on the star's property obstruct his panoramic coastline views and effectively diminish his property's value, E! News has confirmed.
Sigh. Can't the star catch a break?
Charles Richard Grimm, who filed the lawsuit in Santa Barbara County Court on Monday, is suing the star for breach of contract, private nuisance and spite fence, according to documents obtained by E! News.
Costner's rep declined to comment.
Grimm claims that he intended the home to be a vacation rental, and says that when the beachfront property was purchased it had "panoramic and generally unobstructed views" of the Pacific Ocean, beach and coastline, which "contributed substantially to the beauty and value of the property."
Grimm also alleges that when he purchased the land, only an ivy-covered chain-link fence separated his property from Costner's. He claims that Costner eventually installed 10-foot-tall hedges and planted Washingtonia robusta trees that can grow up to 80 feet high.
When he complained about the shrubbery, he says he was told they were added so that the house's occupants wouldn't peep into Costner's home, and that the actor's wife, Christine Baumgartner, was merely doing "what we have to in order to feel comfortable in our home."
Grimm is seeking a court order stipulating that the hedges be kept no higher than 6 feet, as well as other damages.
—Reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum