The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that a Chicago woman and her husband are suing a Catskills resort for $20 million after she allegedly suffered 500 bedbug bites while staying at the hotel last summer. Ms. Leslie Fox claims that the incident occurred while she and her husband were staying at the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York. The article noted that Ms. Fox discovered the bites after her third night in the hotel. Fox appeared on The Today Show shortly after the story went public and displayed a bunch of pictures presumably taken shortly after she discovered she had been bitten. The pictures showed some pretty nasty looking red lesions all over the body of Ms. Fox, who is allegedly still receiving treatment. An attorney for the hotel claimed that the property is regularly inspected by pest control companies that will certify the resort was "bug-free".
This is the second time in recent history bed bug cases have made news. In 2004 the Seventh Circuit here in Chicago upheld an unusual verdict in a bedbug case. In Mathias v. Economy Lodging (7th Circuit, 2003) the a federal jury awarded the plaintiffs $5000 in compensatory damages and $186,000 in punitive damages against the defendant. In Mathias though, there was some rather damaging evidence against the defendant. Evidence came out that bedbugs had been discovered some 2 years before plaintiffs were bitten and an exterminator had suggested fumigation, but the Economy refused. Finally, and likely most damaging, was the evidence that the defendant continued to rent the room after it had been classified as DO NOT RENT ROOM UNTIL TREATED.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment