Edward Higgins, the defense lawyer, tried to kill the suit, claiming it’s impossible to know how and when bed bugs arrived in the home, but the judge did not dismiss the civil suit:

Circuit Judge John McBain said there’s no evidence the YMCA camp knew of the blood-sucking insects in 2005, but a jury or judge could decide whether officials should have suspected bugs and used routine pest control.

Higgins’ response?

“No one in the Midwest had a clue there were bedbugs here,” Higgins said. “Most people thought it was the subject of a nursery rhyme.”

The bed bug blame game is a difficult one to win, as Higgins knows. In most cases, we have to admit a lack of definitive evidence as to the source of an infestation.

On the other hand, whatever the climate in 2005, the days of denying responsibility because you never heard of bed bugs in your area are now kaput.

Nevertheless, detecting bed bugs is no picnic even when you are aware, as many Bedbuggers will attest.

And it is true that you have to be aware in order to detect them. Still, the article asserts that

While bedbug population has been on the rise in the United States in the last five years, it is not true that no one in the Midwest knew of their existence before that.

“Bedbugs and people have been together since we lived in caves,” Michigan State University entomologist Howard Russell said.

Bed bugs have been here all along: we keep hearing this. Many entomologists and PCOs will assert they saw bed bugs (albeit more rarely) throughout the golden years of 1972-1999 (after DDT was banned in the US but before the current epidemic “began”). And yet others date the resurgence of bed bugs to circa 1999.

On the other hand, Russell does not see a clear link in the YMCA infestation and the home infestation:

“I would argue it was a coincidence because bedbug populations are on the rise, and there are many sources,” Russell said. Also, only DNA testing could prove the bugs hitched a ride from Storer Camp to the plaintiff’s house, he said.

Now, about that DNA testing: does he mean testing the home bed bug’s DNA (against that of the bed bugs found at the camp?) Or does he mean testing the client’s DNA being compared with that found in blood eaten by bed bugs at camp? Even if it’s proven that the bed bugs at camp and the bed bugs at home are from the same strain, or bit the same boy, how would either test prove definitively that bed bugs did not travel in the other direction?

Yes, I know a lot of readers will be really frustrated with me. Of course he got bed bugs from the camp, people will say. The same way that when someone first notices bed bug bites after a trip to a hotel, or the purchase of a new mattress (delivered in a truck), they will assume they know the source of bed bugs. And make no mistake, these are all probable sources. But it is also true in these cases that bed bugs could have been present in the home–undetected–before the incident in question.

That’s why the blame game doesn’t usually work.

I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like more than probability is needed to win a lawsuit.*  Perhaps that kind of evidence is available to the judge and jury.

Not enough information is available from the article to call this a coincidence, nor to place blame. We don’t know what the kid saw or experienced at camp vs. at home. We don’t know if he was bitten at home first, or at camp. And even if we did, this moment (the first bite) is often hard or impossible to identify: it appears you can be bitten for months without reacting. People sometimes report a large number of bites appearing at once after many bites not causing an immediate reaction; entomologists who feed bed bugs have reported this occurrence.

Because bed bug bites are allergic reactions, and vary so widely, it is very hard to say when the cause is introduced, or removed.

*Update (3/10/2008):  a reader who happens to be a lawyer responded to my comment above that, “I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like more than probability is needed to win a lawsuit.”

Actually, the standard for a civil case is
“preponderance of the evidence” — more probable than
not — basically more than a 50% chance.

http://www.answers.com/topic/preponderance-of-evidence?cat=biz-fin

Thank you, anonymous lawyer, for that correction.

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Vornado-owned Hotel Pennsylvania has agreed to pay nearly $100,000, court records show, to a group of six tourists who claimed to have been bitten by bedbugs while staying at the old Seventh Avenue lodge.

You can read the rest here: Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000 | The New York Observer

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One Of The World’s Premier Luxury Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, Rented Bed Bug-Infested Room To Prominent Licensing / Intellectual Property Attorney And Wife; Bites From the Parasites Located In Bug-Ridden Headboard Caused Hundreds Of Painful, Itchy, Swollen, Red Lesions In Their Faces, Eyelids, Backs, Shoulders, Necks, Arms And Hands; Parasites Embedded Themselves In Luggage, Which Caused New Infestation In Victims’ NYC Apartment, Federal Lawsuit Claims; Mandarin Oriental Admitted A Bed Bug Infestation Existed at the Hotel

NEW YORK CITY — Prominent licensing and intellectual property attorney Sidney Bluming, Esq., whose clients have included Elizabeth Taylor, Claudia Schiffer and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue models, is suing one of the world’s most exclusive hotels, London’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, for failing to prevent May 2006 bed bug attacks that seriously injured him and his wife and ruined the business trip for which they traveled to the U.K., according to Attorney Michael S. Weinstein.

Bluming and his wife then unknowingly transported the parasites with them back to New York. As a result, they had to discard furniture and personal items from their recently renovated Manhattan apartment and to their added embarrassment have the property fumigated, according to a federal Complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The press release claims that

The hotel took no precautions nor trained staff to prevent, or correct, bed bug infestation. During check-in the Blumings were initially advised that the room to which they were assigned was unavailable. Ultimately, they were assigned to the infested room for which they paid the conference rate of close to $500 USD per night. On the second night of their five-night stay, the Blumings noticed what first appeared as simple insect bites throughout their bodies. The bites multiplied each night of their stay, according to the Complaint.

Upon returning to New York the couple immediately sought medical attention and advised the hotel’s general manager of the bites they suffered during their stay. Bluming’s physician took a biopsy, while his wife’s physician and oncologist were consulted. As the Blumings worried about the cause of the lesions, the hotel withheld from them for nearly a week the knowledge that bed bug infestation was toblame, the Complaint states.

Defendant entities based in Hong Kong, London, and the U.S. were served in late December with the five-count Complaint. Fraud, Deceptive Trade Practice, Negligence, Recklessness, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, and Nuisance are alleged in the Complaint which seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

The final statement makes it clear that no one is immune to the anxiety bed bugs can produce:

“Sidney and Cynthia Bluming have great difficulty sleeping through the night. They wake up fitfully to check their bed for infestation or see if they’ve been bitten by bed bugs. They fear staying in a hotel. And they worry that the lab report which Mandarin Oriental is withholding could reveal additional health concerns originating from the bed bug infestation.” Weinstein said. “One of the most exclusive hotel chains in the world is turning a cold shoulder to customers it failed to protect. The Mandarin Oriental’s lack of responsibility, absence of compassion and refusal to provide additional information are shocking.”

To load a PDF of the full press release, click here.
To load a PDF of the complaint of Bluming v. Mandarin, click here.

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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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