A COUPLE at war with their neighbours over a 10-minute short-cut to a picturesque Cornish town had their case thrown out by top judges yesterday, leaving them facing massive legal bills.

Robert Lester and Ann Hardy sued Steven and Louise Woodgate for almost £90,000 damages, accusing them of blocking their right of way into Looe.

But Appeal Court judges ruled the couple were not entitled to a penny and ordered them to pay legal costs, which could run to a six-figure sum.

Lord Justice Sedley said the costs order was "in my view an exemplary use of the power to mark the court's disapproval of the use of litigation to intimidate".

At stake was a steep and narrow path – said to be "unwise to attempt in wet conditions or good shoes" – but which is the quickest route from Mr Lester and Ms Hardy's newly built home to the town. But making the path less precipitate and easier to use for Mr Lester and Ms Hardy, of West View, Shutta Lane, would mean the Woodgates losing a car parking space.

The dispute goes back to before either of the neighbours bought their homes – which stand on the east side of the River Looe valley – when the land on which West View now stands was an allotment and the path was used by gardeners and their wheelbarrows.

No-one disputed a right of way, but a gate, part of a retaining wall and a stepped ramp – which had provided a safe course for wheelbarrows on to Shutta Lane – were removed at some point before 1999 to make way for what is now the Woodgates' car parking space.

The remaining path is "a steep, narrow and irregular way requiring a certain amount of scrambling". Mr Lester and Ms Hardy sued their neighbours – who moved into their home in 2000 – demanding a full reinstatement of the right of way and seeking almost £90,000 in damages.

They claimed, among other things, the £14,000 cost of returning the footpath to its former state and that builders' inability to use the right of way added £30,000 to the costs of building West View after they bought the land in 2004.

In May last year, after a lengthy hearing at Truro County Court, at which many local residents were called to give evidence, Recorder Martineau accepted the Woodgates were "in principle liable" for the "interference" with the right of way.

But he accepted the couple had no idea of any lurking dispute when they bought their home, and "it was never their intention" to impinge on neighbours' rights.

Recorder Martineau awarded Mr Lester and Ms Hardy just £10 damages, observing that "the use of a barrow is not a greatly valued right these days".

The couple challenged the judge's ruling – but yesterday suffered comprehensive defeat at the hands of their neighbours. Stripping the couple even of the £10 nominal payout, Lord Justice Patten said the Woodgates' continued use of their parking space did not amount to an "actionable nuisance".

Speaking from her home yesterday, Mrs Woodgate, 45, said she and her husband, 46, had been left with no option but to fight the case, even though it had been intimidating and had affected all of their lives and those of their three children.

"If we had given in, we would have lost our house anyway," she said.

Mr Lester and Ms Hardy did not wish to comment on the case.