Sick of That Commotion : Encino: Singer Smokey Robinson is accused in a lawsuit of unneighborly conduct.

Not every day’s a wonderful day in Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood.

At least not in singer Smokey Robinson’s neighborhood in Encino, if you believe some of his unhappy neighbors.

Michael and Barrie Grobstein, who live next door to the Motown legend, claim in a Superior Court lawsuit that Robinson has been causing them mental anguish by such actions as playing music loudly and erecting a “spite” hedge more than 10 feet tall.

And they wish Robinson--whose hits in the 1960s and 1970s included “I Second That Emotion,” “The Tracks of My Tears” and “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”--had gotten ahold of his tree they say fell onto their deck.

The Grobsteins filed suit on Monday asking for $750,000 plus an unspecified amount in punitive damages. They say some actions by Robinson, also known as William Robinson Jr., were intentional and malicious and that they suffered “humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress.”

Neither the Grobsteins nor their attorney could be reached for comment. At Robinson’s house, a man who identified himself as Robinson’s son said the singer was out of town.

On Tuesday, the curvy, narrow street where the litigants live was quiet except for the occasional rustle of a shade tree or the purr of a passing Mercedes. Robinson’s seven-bedroom, six-bathroom colonial house, with an estimated worth of at least $1.5 million, is hidden behind a solid, green metal gate. Visitors are scanned by a closed-circuit television camera.

A house nearby on Rancho Street is the Grobsteins’ more modest five-bedroom residence, worth an estimated $534,000.

The Grobsteins’ suit contends that on March 19, 1991, a tree on Robinson’s property fell into their yard causing $250,000 damage to their deck, pool, shrubs, bushes and trees, and that Robinson could have prevented it.

But that wasn’t the end of their problems, according to the suit. Robinson also installed a hedge over six feet in height, a violation, according to the suit, of municipal codes. City officials could not be reached for comment. To make matters worse, Smokey allegedly gets in their ears day and night.

In April, the suit contends, Robinson installed speakers in his yard that blare loud music from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Robinson has refused to reduce the volume, causing “great nervous distress,” according to the suit.

“The comfort and health of the plaintiffs and their enjoyment of their premises as a dwelling, has been, and is, greatly impaired,” the suit stated. For that, the Grobsteins requested $500,000, in addition to the $250,000 tree-damage compensation.

Also, the suit contends, Robinson erected a hedge more than 10 feet high to annoy the Grobsteins, and that has deprived them of light and air and diminished their enjoyment of their property. The suit asks that the hedge be removed.