Mrs Vorhauer has been at the centre of protracted legal battles, first famously with Tamworth City Council in the late ’90s over her failure to remove hundreds of chickens from her Wilburtree St home, and now again, with Armidale Dumaresq Council over a shipping container and two sheds in the  backyard of an Armidale home.

Despite battling barristers and the complex legal system, Mrs Vorhauer has come out on top.

“Councils have a vendetta against me, they just don’t want me to go to court,” she said in an interview with The Leader.

“I wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t know I had the law on my side. I took this stand because I had nowhere else to go.”

Armidale council took Mrs Vorhauer to court last year for her failure to remove a shipping container and two sheds from the Uralla Rd property.

It followed a 2012 Land and Environment Court-issued order to remove the structures, which weren’t formally approved.

But the council was sensationally forced to back down in April over a “legal technicality” after it failed to name Mrs Vorhauer’s daughter, Lisa Vorhauer, who lives on the property, on the application.

And that mistake has finally forced it out of court this week.

In a telephone call-over, Justice Rachel Pepper ordered the council to “pay reasonable disbursements of the respondent. The court notes the estimate consists of the sum of $95.”

The matter was set down for hearing on Tuesday, according to court documents, but is now closed after the council withdrew a notice of motion it had filed on October 1.

“I don’t go out looking for trouble, but I know the law and I won’t back down to these people who try and make you do things which aren’t right,” Mrs Vorhauer said.

She doesn’t have a legal degree, but has studied the law intensely, even writing to the Governor-General and the Queen.

But the legal wrangling has taken its toll.

In 2003, Mrs Vorhauer was jailed for four years after she lashed out at Tamworth council officers and police, who arrived at her home to forcefully remove hundreds of chickens.

She slashed one person on the arm and injured another with a Stanley knife.

“Lisa and I have been very sick and this stress is affecting our health,” she said.

“I have no doubt this is malicious.

“They submitted a new application to make Lisa a party on a notice of motion – well, they can’t do that.

“All the proceedings are over.”

But it could be short-lived, with a spokesperson for Armidale Du-maresq Council confirming to The Leader, “Council will be re-filing (the matter) to the court within seven days.”

Mrs Vorhauer is undeterred: under her reading of the law, she maintains the law is on her side.