Posted on 04/06/2008 7:20:30 PM PDT by lastchance
Do you smoke? Well, you better be careful where. I don't smoke, and I don't like the smell, but what some people are doing to smokers makes me say give me a break.
For the last 12 years, Galila Huff has owned Caffé la Fenicé, a restaurant serving Italian food on the Upper West Side of New York City.
Smoking there is forbidden. New York state bans it in all restaurants and bars.
Huff's apartment is a few blocks away at The Ansonia, an ornate turn-of-the-century building that both Babe Ruth and Arturo Toscanini once called home.
Huff lives there alone except for her Chihuahua, and her cigarettes. For 40 years, she's smoked a pack or two a day.
But then in October, she got a letter from her neighbors. It said, "Dear Resident, immediately cease smoking in your apartment, unless and until you take adequate steps to properly ventilate your smoke out of your apartment such that none enters the common hallway."
Huff couldn't believe it. First she can't smoke in her own restaurant, now she can't smoke in her own apartment?
"I mean the cigarettes smell, yeah. But I'm not puffing into their faces," she said.
The complainants -- Jonathan and Jenny Selbin -- wouldn't agree to a television interview, but they did file a lawsuit against Huff, saying she is "willfully, intentionally, recklessly and/or negligently endangering the health of plaintiffs and their 4-year-old son. & As evidenced by her refusal to address the grave danger posed to the health of a small child, despite repeated requests and warnings, defendant's conduct is actuated by evil and/or reprehensible motives."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Cannibalism and smoking? You’ve missed Joe’s point or choose to ignore it. If two out of three people support a socialist government in the U.S., what should the wiser, more intelligent citizens do? Just shut up and accept it?
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/AmericanIdeal/aspects/demrep.html
The above link describes the significant difference between a democracy and a republic. The U.S. is a Republic.
No we don't. Please read the link on my previous post and get back to us!
Statement of Jonathan and Jenny Selbin Regarding Smoking Lawsuit
We declined 20/20’s offer to appear on camera, just as we have every other such offer, because we are private people who did not seek and do not want publicity. Indeed, we regret that this matter had to come to litigation and generated any publicity at all.
For over a year we reached out to our neighbor Galila Huff and asked her to simply take reasonable steps to reduce the second-hand smoke coming from her apartment into our common hallway. She refused every step of the way. When that did not work, the Condominium Board passed a resolution requiring residents to keep second-hand smoke out of common areas. Ms. Huff ignored that too. As a last resort, we filed our lawsuit based upon well-established New York law that treats second-hand smoke in private residences as a nuisance.
We filed our lawsuit for one reason and one reason only: because second-hand smoke is toxic, especially to young children. That is not just our view, it is the official position of New York City, New York State, the Surgeon General of the United States, and just about the entire scientific and health communities. This is not a situation involving the sorts of things every New Yorker knows they must live with in the tight quarters we share, like food smells and noise. This is about toxins in our home being breathed every day by our 4-year old child. We filed our case as parents trying to do the best we can to protect our son from the needless exposure to toxins. Surely if we put chemicals toxic to Ms. Huff or her dog in the common hallway on a daily basis, she would be justified in asking us to stop (and, ultimately, suing us if we refused to stop).This is no different.
We do not want money. We do not want publicity. We simply want Ms. Huff to take reasonable steps to keep her smoke in her own apartment. We also do not want to try to tell Ms. Huff to stop smoking (in her home or anywhere else), nor is it our business what she does in the privacy of her home. It is only because her smoke comes into our common, shared hallway that it has become our business.
We believed this case was settled shortly after it was filed when the Aerus Company graciously donated two of their high-end air purifiers to Ms. Huff and one to us. We told Ms. Huff that we would quickly dismiss our lawsuit if she would simply agree to use these air purifiers and to put a fan in her window blowing out. Unfortunately, Ms. Huff has told us through her lawyer that rather than put a fan in her window, she instead intends to “contest this matter both in court and the media.” We regret that is her position.
We stand behind the basis for our lawsuit, but also stand ready to work with Ms. Huff to resolve this issue along the lines we have already made clear so that everyone can return to their normal private lives.
What a bunch of crap.
D.F.-And your point is? I stand by my previous post-he’s a typical liberal faggot with no balls that insists the government, its courts, and its guns create the perfect world for him and his family, and those who do not go along with it are taken out by force.
Well, of course. Star chambers are always secret proceedings. A little judge shopping would complete the circle.
I do the same thing.
Just the TIP of the iceberg on this cr@p.
Sure would be nice if I had some sort of ‘junk science’ to back me up so I could sue people who bother me in my life, LOL!
Gabz? Have you been able to find copies of those Death Certificates yet that state even ONE person has died from Second Hand Smoke? ;)
“...defendant’s conduct is actuated by evil and/or reprehensible motives.”
Just goes to show how easy today’s generation has it. They have easily forgotten the actual evil of Osama’s action and the true evil of his reprehensible motives. The sheeple are as lazy as a populace could get.
And this laziness is getting us 2 Marxists and a Socialist fighting to lead this nation.
“I am all for banning smoking in public places, restaurants especially, but preventing people from doing it in their own homes goes way over the top.”
I see that you have admitted that you don’t consider privately owned businesses that invites customers onto their property to be privately owned businesses. I’d like to personally thank you for bringing Kelo to our once great Republic.
You better go back and read the Constitution that you have sworn to uphold.
“We live in a democracy where the majority makes the rules. Since smokers are outnumbered at least two to one by non-smokers, you will just have to suck it up. That’s the reality of it”
Like I said, you better go back and re-read that Constitution you swore to protect. Why would you volunteer to give your life for something you so clearly lack any understanding about? You think a uniform gets you chicks?
Private property, individual liberty and the persuit of happiness are paramount to Freedom. Anything less is not acceptable to anyone that believes man was meant to be free. Your responses on this thread clearly shows you to be an enemy of freedom, not a defender of freedom.
The last time I was there was last October. Smoking is allowed in bars (which I don’t go to because I don’t drink) and on the casino floors. They don’t have the mess of a law that Ohio has.
October was the last time we were there as well. Did you go for the PBR?
No, I didn’t. Where do they hold that event? Nice to see you again, by the way! :-)
Very good. Hubby and I enjoy Paris. :-)
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