Businessman Says Cost of Spat with Actor Neighbor over Easement Tops $1M

A man who sued his Hollywood Hills neighbor, “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor, testified Friday that a dispute between the pair over an easement has cost him more than $1 million in damages.

Scott Anderson said he is still under a court order Radnor obtained that prevents Anderson and his mother, Janice Anderson, from going onto a deck atop the easement where the actor made several improvements. The July 2018 order will remain in effect through the end of the current lawsuit.

Anderson testified on his own behalf in the Los Angeles Superior Court trial of a lawsuit he and his mother brought against Radnor in May 2017 through a family company, Rancho Carlton Properties LLC. Scott and his wife, Diana, bought the home from actress Audrina Patridge, who told jurors on Tuesday that she lived at the home from 2008, after it had recently been built, until 2016, when she moved to Orange County to be closer to her parents.

According to plaintiffs’ attorney Sean Macias, previous owners of the Rancho Carlton home in 1965 granted an easement to the then-owner of the Radnor home to build a walkway and a barbecue. But after he bought the home, Radnor demolished the existing deck, brick walkway and barbecue, built a larger wood deck, added a cantilever and seating area and converted the existing barbecue into a much taller fireplace.

The modifications were done without building permits and caused the easement to be terminated, Macias said.

In his testimony, Anderson said the large fireplace was the modification Radnor made that concerned him the most because they both live in an area considered vulnerable to fires. He said the two were unable to negotiate an agreement between themselves regarding the spat over the easement and that he is now seeking more than $1 million from the actor and a finding that the easement is the exclusive property of Rancho Carlton Properties.

Anderson said he is a former real estate agent who obtained his license in Arizona, where he and his wife still live part of the year. He described himself as a business consultant and said part of his income is generated by buying homes and quickly reselling them for profit, a process known as “flipping.”

The 45-year-old Radnor has countersued Rancho Carlton Properties, asking that he be left alone and allowed to enjoy his property without interference from his neighbors. His attorney, Edith Matthai, told jurors that he made the improvements because conditions on the easement were unsightly and unsafe. She said there were termites in the wood of the previous deck and some of the bricks in the walkway were raised and could cause someone to trip.

Radnor testified he believes he has the right to use the easement and was entitled to make the modifications he has in order to make the surface and railings safer. He also said he would be open to paying his neighbors for the exclusive use of the easement.

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