Tribunal confirms order to turf small dog from apartments complex

A bitter dispute revolving around a 2kg dog whose owners are “utterly devoted” has turned into a legal saga involving restraining orders, an assault, secret recordings and repeated visits to court.

Marcus the dog has been at the centre of a bitter dispute at the Marrakai Apartments on Smith St.

A bitter dispute over a 2kg dog whose owners are “utterly devoted” to him but who poses an “existential discomfort” to other residents at a Darwin apartment building has turned into a legal saga involving restraining orders, an assault, secret recordings and repeated trips to court.

The “small and inoffensive” dog at the centre of the dispute, Marcus, is now unlikely to ever return to the Marrakai Apartments on Smith St, after his owners, Philippe Yerriah and Virna Kurniawan, lost a last-ditch legal bid to prevent the building's body corporate from turfing him.

Mr Yerriah purchased his apartment in 2017 and moved in late in 2018 knowing the building’s bylaws had banned dogs since a 2001 “incident with a German Shepherd”, and despite two failed attempts to have the bylaw changed.

The NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week refused to overturn an earlier order requiring Mr Yerriah to remove Marcus as an “unapproved pet”.

Mr Yerriah hired a Sydney barrister to spearhead his the case.

Tribunal member Mark O’Reilly said the body corporate’s decision to not allow Marcus to live at the Marrakai Apartments was not “unreasonable, oppressive or unjust”.

“I find it difficult to see how the presence of a small and inoffensive dog within the apartment complex will interfere with the enjoyment of the premises by other occupants,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“Clearly, though, it causes at least existential discomfort”.

Mr O’Reilly said he had “some sympathy” for Mr Yerriah and Ms Kurniawan’s grievance.

Neither had any children and “Ms Kurniawan in particular is utterly devoted to Marcus,” Mr O’Reilly said.

IN OTHER DOG NEWS

• PICTURE GALLERY: Darwin’s 50 cutest dogs
• WINNER REVEALED: Darwin’s cutest dog
• PRINCESS SCRUMPY: tributes flow for political pooch
• BELOVED DOG taken by crocodile
• WOMAN mauled by ‘pack of wild dogs’

The tribunal heard Marcus was not allowed outside, was desexed, vaccinated, had “meticulous owners” and was carried downstairs in a backpack when venturing off for outings.

The tribunal had previously heard there was “a considerable degree of tension within the (apartment complex) arising from, related to, or expressed through the medium of the unauthorised pet”.

Mr O’Reilly said: “In my view the behaviour on both sides of the dispute leaves a lot to be desired”.

• SUBSCRIBE TO THE NT NEWS for just $5 a month for the first three months

Ms Kurniawan was early this year the victim of an aggravated assault after the building's property manager, Jason Eugene Gay, admitted in Darwin Local Court he shoved her when she belligerently filmed him up close with her mobile phone.

The Local Court on that occasion heard there was a “history of ill will” between Mr Gay and Ms Kurniawan, whose victim impact statement, Judge John Neill described as reading “as if it’s relating more to a war crime” rather than a low level assault.

“This is something that has been blown out of all proportion,” he said.