After ActewAGL rejected his request for an apology, signed by its chief executive officer, to be published in The Canberra Times, Major (retired) Ian McQuire turned to the ACT Administrative Appeals tribunal for redress.

ActewAGL won't comment on Mr McQuire's matter, citing the fact that it is before ACAT.

The former special forces officer, who fought alongside the veterans of Long Tan, was honoured by the Americans as a member of the Australian Army training team in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971 and, at one point, had incoming governor-general, Peter Cosgrove, as his direct subordinate. He wants a ruling that ActewAGL acted illegally and a modest amount of financial compensation.

This would cover the cost of a shade sail to replace the lopped trees, the loss of privacy and mental stress arising out of the incident.

He said the trees had been ''butchered'' and would take many years to regrow. Individual claims are capped at $10,000 in ACAT cases.

Mr McQuire has been seeking justice for more than a year. The trees were lopped on January 16, 2013. He said the service provider initially failed to take his concerns seriously and had then adopted a ''go slow'' approach.

''They (ActewAGL) are just so arrogant, the bastards,'' he said. ''They get away with it (exceeding their legal rights of access) in other cases because they can. They deliberately slow things down to see if you will go away.''

ActewAGL now appears to want to end the argument as quickly as possible. Its legal counsel, Michael Hope, repeatedly disagreed with ACAT's senior member, Peter Sutherland, over how the question of whether or not the tribunal had legal jurisdiction over the complaint should be settled at a preliminary hearing in Civic on Wednesday.

Mr Sutherland, in turn, was critical of an 11th hour ActewAGL application to have the case summarily dismissed earlier this month.

He described it as ''inappropriate'' and said while the tribunal did have the power to dismiss matters, this capacity was for use when issues were first raised to get rid of matters that shouldn't be before the tribunal.

Mr Sutherland noted ActewAGL was not contesting the essential facts of Mr McQuire's complaint.

These are that on January 16, 2013, workers acting for it had entered the McQuire property and cut branches off a number of trees back to the trunk.

This had been done on the basis of aerial photographs taken a month before. They could not show that Mr McQuire and his son-in-law, using a hired scissors-lift and branch cutter, had trimmed the trees back to within ActewAGL's legal requirements on January 11 and 12.

Mr McQuire, who said he doesn't go looking for a fight but doesn't back down when one starts, was made a member of the Military Division of the Order of Australia for his leading role in establishing Australia's first anti-terrorism unit in the wake of the Hilton Bombing.

The lopped trees used to shade him and his army mates when they got together for frequent barbecues and ''a few'' glasses of red to swap war stories and reminisce on warm summer afternoons.

The barbecues still happen but they wind up a lot quicker. ''Without the shade it's just too bloody hot by 3pm,'' he said.

An experienced campaigner, Mr McQuire believes he has a solid case.

''There are procedures laid down for service providers to gain access to any property (in non-emergency situations),'' he said. ''Those procedures were not followed; I claim the entry is a matter of trespass. There was no emergency on the afternoon of January 16, 2013.''