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More bed bugs in Nashua, NH: rooming-house tenant goes to court

nobugsonme — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:46:28 +0000

More on the Nashua rooming-house mentioned in this story.

Richard Jebb of Nashua, New Hampshire, is suing his rooming-house, having had nine treatments in his room and still suffering from bed bugs, according to the Nashua Telegraph.

On Tuesday, Jebb took his bug problem to Nashua District Court, suing his landlord, Mark Flint, and the owners of the building, 23-25 Temple Street Realty LLC, for interrupting the “quiet enjoyment” of his property by not eradicating the problem in a timely fashion.

The company faces a $1,000 a day penalty for every day of the violation, about $240,000 if it is proven the company was in violation of the law in June.

Sixteen units inspected showed signs of bed bugs earlier this month.

The bugs only come out at night, he said, remarking that tenants in the building talk about seeing the bugs on their television screens late at night, something he said he recently experienced.

It’s not uncommon, especially in SROs, rooming houses, and other low-income housing, that tenants are afraid to (or don’t know how to) demand help with the problem.

Although many tenants in the building are suffering with the problem, Jebb said not all of them are willing to speak up about it.

Thank goodness Jebb was willing to go to bat:

It is partly for the “little guy” that Jebb said he decided to put his rent money in escrow and fight the issue in court.

“If that’s what it takes to get this building under control for all these people.”

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Travel reporter gets bed bugs after hundreds of hotel stays

nobugsonme — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:23:40 +0000

After traveling to 71 countries and staying in hundreds of hotels, NY1 journalist Valerie D’Elia encountered bed bugs in a hotel. Luckily, she did not appear to take them home with her.

Here she tells the story, and asks a few questions of attorney Steven De Castro (who’s been involved with bed bug lawsuits) and local entomologist/ Bedbugger hero Lou Sorkin. She talks about the signs and symptoms of bed bugs, but not really any suggestions about what to do to avoid taking them home.

If you recall, in September 2006, NY1 covered the city council hearing in New York (on bed bugs and the reselling of mattresses). They illustrated the opening with a nice, big photo of a dust mite. The segment below occurred within six months of that incident (I don’t know exactly when, but it was uploaded to YouTube in February). Suffice it to say, they’ve come a long way in those six months.

(I am not sure how we missed this when it aired, but it’s new to us, and maybe to you too!)

If the embedded video won’t work for you, click here.

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Another suit at Presidential Towers: this one focuses on landlord’s non-disclosure of neighbor’s bed bugs

nobugsonme — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:49:52 +0000

A fourth person is suing Presidential Towers in Chicago: this time, on the grounds that Presidential Towers knew the neighbors had bugs, did not tell the tenant, who then got them.

This issue is relevant to all tenants with bed bugs. If landlords had to tell neighbors when one tenant had bed bugs, it might mean more people get treatment more quickly (which would be a good thing for landlords, in the end, because the problem could be treated before their entire buildings get infested). It would help tenants, because they could be warned (and as we know, some people don’t suffer from bites, and so may have no other warning.) In the end, it would lessen the spread of the bugs in a building and, by extension, in the larger community.

And though no one will want to admit their building has bed bugs, in the end, it might mean more people talk about this and the stigma is lessened. You can’t run or hide from bed bugs, so you might as well talk about them.

Previous Presidential Towers posts are here and here. And there are hundreds more on the internets.

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Bitten by bed bugs: NYC Opera Soprano suing Hilton Suites in Phoenix

nobugsonme — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:35:41 +0000

A soprano from the New York City Opera is suing a hotel in Phoenix where she claims she suffered bed bug bites.

Trainer, who lives on the upper West Side, said she was staying at the Hilton Suites in Phoenix for a November performance when she woke up at 3:30 a.m. and found “a couple of bugs on my body.”

“I leaped out of bed and pulled back the sheet. They were everywhere! It was like a sci-fi movie,” she said.

Trainer said she immediately went to her laptop, typed “bedbugs” into Google, saw a picture of one and followed the advice to put a few in a Ziploc bag. The hotel manager offered to write off her room fee for that night, she said.

When the bites started to show, Trainer said she found she had 150 welts on her arms, legs and eyelids.

“She looks like a piece of wood that has been attacked by termites,” said her lawyer Kenneth Glassman.

Trainer is suing the Hilton hotel chain in Manhattan Supreme Court for $6 million.

She claimed the experience made sleep difficult and she looked terrible - but said she went on with her scheduled performances with the opera and Phoenix Symphony because otherwise, fellow singers on the program wouldn’t get paid.

Trainer might need laser treatments to help with scarring, her lawyer said.

A Hilton spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

She got 150 welts in one night: that’s a serious infestation. Whenever I read these stories about hotel customers getting so many bites so quickly, I have to wonder if this is true, if other customers did not mention a problem before that. And if they did, why was the room offered?

A few points:

1/ This is not a cheap hotel.

2/ This is a person who probably does not need the publicity of a lawsuit. (Nor did SNL’s Maya Rudolph.)

3/ She is from NYC and encountered bed bugs in Phoenix. I highlight this because I am a bit tired of reading about people who don’t want to come to NYC because of the bed bugs. It can happen anywhere, and yes, those of us from NYC can be free of bed bugs here and meet them elsewhere. It is not a New York problem. San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Halifax, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Miami, Chicago, Phoenix and Lexington, KY have all been in the news lately as cities seeing a lot of bed bug activity. And hotels facing lawsuits have been anywhere from tourist destinations like Anaheim, California to sleepy places like Alton, Illinois.

4/ She is suing for $6 million based on one night of misery, and the bites, which of course lingered. But it really puts into perspective the misery suffered by so many of us at home, for much longer. Some of us have landlords who are culpable (for example, renting out apartments they know are infested, or withholding information about infested neighboring units.) I watch with interest to see how more lawsuits by renters might appear.

This comes hot on the heels of my posting Mike’s queries about avoiding bed bugs while traveling, and reducing the anxiety around them. I still think reinfestation is not likely to happen to any of us (sure, it’s a lot more likely than lightning striking once or twice, but not likely to keep hitting the same people nonetheless). That’s not to say I don’t worry when I travel. Once burned, and all that. I see the irony of the timing of this story right after my last post. And I realize that every day bed bugs multiply, making it more likely that we’ll get them, and perhaps even get them more than once.

Update: According to ABC news, she was actually in the hotel room for 6 days. (My mind was reeling at the thought of 150 bites in one night.) She was suffering from the effects before the 6th day, but did not know the cause of the itchy welts; it was on the last day that she found “brutally conclusive proof” (bed bugs themselves, apparently).

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another bedbug lawsuit

nobugsonme — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:45:57 +0000

According to the NY Sun, A Mexican family claims to have been attacked by bedbugs in the Anaheim Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. They filed a lawsuit, seeking damages.

The assistant general manager of the hotel, Karlyn Bretz, said the hotel hasn’t received a copy of the lawsuit. “We are definitely aware of the incident and the guest, and nothing is more important than our guests’ welfare,” Ms. Bretz said, noting that the hotel paid for medical treatment of the bites.

Ms. Juarez Bedoya’s lawyer, Alan Schnurman, called the hotel’s account “false” and claimed the hotel didn’t pay the medical bills.

Update (10/14): here’s a news report which goes into more detail. The woman and her two kids had over 1100 bites between them.

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