Where there’s smoke, there isn’t always a guilty verdict apparently.
A jury in Suffolk County, Mass, said no to a Boston woman’s contention that she was lied to by her real estate broker who she claimed wasn’t truthful about the fact that her neighbor beneath her is a cigarette smoker.
It was, says the Boston Globe, “one of the first such lawsuits to go to trial in Massachusetts.”
The trial lasted a week–or about the amount of time it might take the average smoker to puff through an entire carton of cigarettes.
The woman alleged that though she certainly had detected the smell of smoke when she was in the process of buying the unit, the broker had told her that it was the seller who had been the one smoking like a chimney and that the offensive orders would soon go away.
The jury apparently opted to believe the broker’s version that the subject never even came up.
The Globe points out that even though the verdict was a victory for the real estate broker in this case, the fact that the case even went as far as it did should give other Realtors pause when it comes to the issue of second hand smoke.
Anyone have a light???
Photo: LDRBRS
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Article Author: Charles FeldmanCharles has written 179 articles for us.
Visit Charles's Website: http://www.thefeldmanblog.com
Charles is currently reporting for KNX Radio in Los Angeles, is the co-author of the book No Time To Think, and can be found commenting about the news on his blog, The Feldman Blog, as well as on The Huffington Post.
Joshua Dorkin
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’m surprised the broker made the mistake of answering such a question. They probably would have disqualified real estate brokers and agents from the jury but if I were on it, I probably would have voted “guilty” if there existed a shred of evidence against the agent. It just seems like something some agents say to make a deal. You know, lines like: “This town has top rated schools”.