Think Your Home Is Your Castle?

[xoxoxoBruce]

In truth the Supreme Court shot that down a couple years ago in Kelo V. New London, CT... but I digress.

Edwin Gray, a resident of Washington, DC, lives in a home his family has owned for 50 years. Last year a couple move in next door with a small child and one on the way. She claims she has upset indigestion and can't sleep at night worrying about Edwin's cigarette smoke sneaking through a hole in the cellar, harming her unborn baby.

Now this story must have considerably more detail than this article reveals, but the bottom line is a Superior Court judge issued an injunction that Gray and any guests or family cannot smoke cigarettes, cigars or marijuana in their home.

Yeah, why not fix the damn hole? Damifino?

[Gravdigr]

Step A. Get a house. A single family house.

It's unclear if Mr. Gray lives in a house, or a duplex, or an apartment. The article only refers to his "home". [ETA: The vid shows a row of townhouse-type homes, apartments, basically.]

If your "home" shares so much as a wall with another "home", then, yeah, sooner or later, they're gonna try to tell you how to live. And, like in this case, they'll prolly have a court backing them up.

My neighbors can go pound sand if they don't like something I'm doing. And they know it.

[Gravdigr]

"I think it’s an excellent precedent to start, so people can realize you can't just ignore your neighbor," Kass said. "Your home is no longer your castle."

Am I the only one hoping this guy gets butt-fucked in the mouth with this precedent?

[Happy Monkey]

Not the only one, I'm sure.

But if you share a wall with someone, you can't pretend you don't. Even if you have a standalone house, you can't do something that crosses over to your neighbor's property with impunity.

More detail on the story.

During earlier court proceedings, both families agreed to inspections of their houses. Inspectors discovered cracks in the common wall between the homes. Inspectors also said that the chimney on the Gray home was decaying and as a result was sending smoke from the Gray home into the Coppinger’s home.
“If they just get these things fixed, the lawsuit will go away. This isn’t about the money,” Nessa Coppinger said.
Before filing the lawsuit, she said she and her husband sent several letters to Gray and his family trying to get them to agree on the fixes. But she said the letters were ignored.
“If they continued to refuse to speak with us or to take any action, and have no concern about the health of our children, we had to pursue our case,” she said.
“This lawsuit would probably be gone tomorrow if they got it fixed and brought it to code,” said the Coppingers’ attorney, Eric Klein, a colleague of Nessa Coppinger’s at the law firm Beveridge & Diamond. “It would all end. We just want the house to be safe for these children.”

[glatt]

I wonder if a vapor barrier is cheaper than lawyers. I bet it is. I bet the plaintiffs could get out of this cheaper by just putting up a vapor barrier. Although maybe they have their own chimney that shares a flue with the neighbor's chimney. Hard to separate those.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

The vid shows a row of townhouse-type homes, apartments, basically.

Yeah, in the cities like DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC and Boston, the only people who can afford homes with no common walls, can't also afford not to live in the city, they live in the burbs.

Thanks for the details, HM, I knew there had to be a whole lot more to it.