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They were both Singapore Airlines (SIA) chief stewards and neighbors, but relations between the two men were anything but cordial.

For 3-1/2 hours one night in 2009, Devinder Singh, 51, spouted a litany of verbal abuse as he complained bitterly about 55-year-old K. Parameshwara.

Singh was apparently near the ground floor carpark of the Upper East Coast Road estate where the two SIA employees lived.

But he spoke so loudly that Mr Parameshwara, who was in his second floor unit just above, heard everything.

The latter was incensed because Singh's remarks included racial slurs, degrading comments about Parameshwara's wife and 79-year-old mother-in-law, and a string of vulgarities.

Parameshwara promptly lodged a magistrate's complaint, and on Tuesday, Singh was fined $3,000 by magistrate Lee Chow Soon for causing distress by using insulting and abusive words.

He was fined less than the maximum of $5,000 under the Miscellaneous Offenses (Public Order and Nuisance) Act, and the magistrate did not award Parameshwara legal costs.

But the penalty was higher than the typical fines of $1,000 and $1,500 meted out for the same offense in private summons cases.

Lee ruled out imposing a more lenient "first offense kind of fine", saying that the stiffer penalty would send a strong signal to other would-be offenders.

But he also told Singh that he hoped the two men could move on as they were going to continue living as neighbors. "Don't let it be an obstacle to your future relationship," he said.

On hearing the sentence, Parameshwara and his wife Shoba, an SIA flight attendant, became emotional. She sobbed, and he was seen wiping tears from his eyes and putting his arm around her as they sat in the public gallery.

The trial lasted nine days in the Neighborhood Court, which was set up in 2008 to hear disputes between neighbors. Hearings are presided over by magistrates, who are Justices of the Peace.

Mediation has brought down the number of neighbors' disputes going to trial.

When the Neighborhood Court began hearing disputes in 2008, 22 cases were heard. The number dropped to three last year and for the first 10 months of this year, only two proceeded to trial - including this case.

Singh's offense took place between 10.30pm on Jan 6, 2009, and 2am the next day.

According to legal statements filed by both sides, the dispute allegedly arose over the running of the estate. Singh was the chairman of the estate management committee at the time.

Pleading for leniency, his lawyer, R. Shiever, said that around the time of the dispute and subsequent quarrel, Singh had just found out that his wife needed a liver transplant.

"He faces a collateral punishment. He has to face and cope with the social stigma attached to this matter and the possibility of losing his employment," he said.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.