The owners of a NYC apartment building have filed a lawsuit against their tenants who continue to stink up the place when they cook large quantities of fish. These landlords seeking relief from the smell have a special connection to another Lord — they're nuns!
In the lawsuit, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart Inc. allege that the defendants produce smells "similar to that of vomit or rotten meat." In fact, one resident worried that a dead body was decomposing and called the authorities!
The nuns have asked the court to make the fish-fryers stop producing the orders, while also paying the nuns' legal fees and damages of at least $50,000. Do you think a court can determine what smell should be illegal, or is it too subjective? While it seems reasonable to ask neighbors to stop making your place smell like vomit or a corpse, I wonder if they should pay thousands in damages.
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3.1 Phillip Lim
1That sounds like horrible conditions, I can't deal with fish smells, allergic, yuck!
2Just out of curiosity, I looked at my lease to see if there were any clauses that could be relevant to a situation like this. The lease is a pretty standard boilerplate one, and there's this under the "Quiet Enjoyment" section: "Resident shall not...annoy...any other Resident or neighbor."
Now that I think about it, the vague wording of that makes me nervous.
3I would think smell would be like making loud noise all the time - if you can't contain your activities to your rental space, you're imposing on the other residents. I find the smell of fish to be nauseating, so I'd make it a health issue.
4I hate anyone else's bad cooking smells seeping into my apartment.
5CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS.
Maybe she was downsized and needs some extra money.
6Is she making the fish to sell to others? (It says something about "orders" in the post, but I thought that was a typo for "odors.") She could get hit with the health code for not having a food license, no?
7Why don't the nuns get the Boss to smite the tenant? No court costs.
8They're definitely not loving their neighbor as themselves, you know.
9That depends on what she is doing to the fish. If she's making lutefisk, then I am all for throwing her out. That stuff is NASTY!!!
10" I would think smell would be like making loud noise all the time - if you can't contain your activities to your rental space, you're imposing on the other residents. "
Well said *stephley*. I don't think they should impose on anyone else's living space because of their awful smells. Why would your neighbor want that funky smell in their work clothes, just because you don't mind smelling like fish when you go out?
The tenants should pay and also learn to be respectful. They should remember that they live in an apartment complex that has people all around and up on them. It's not a home where the tenants are more secluded to their neighbors who cannot smell what they're cooking.
11Our next door neighbor smokes and the smell from her cigs leaks in through our walls and kitchen hook-ups. It is terrible.
BTW, we think she's stressed about the holidays. She was super smokey yesterday!
12I agree with steph; it's really no different from loud noise in terms of being annoying and intrusive of your neighbors' space.
I guess what makes this tough for me is it's food. However stinky and annoying it is those people aren't doing it to be annoying and stupid like people who enjoy playing ridiculously loud music. They're just hungry. Can landlords make you change your diet now, too?
But again it's still a nuisance so siiigh that's a toughie :\
13Maybe the tenants should be asked to install one of those fan system things that go above the stove and suck all the oily smoke and odors out, if they refuse to stop cooking the smelly fishes.
14They're probably cooking the fish to cover the smell of the dead body decomposing in their apartment.
15Ewww Stef. They should just burn vinegar, not that hard.
16
stephley
17lol... stephley.
18Haha, this is hilarious. My best friend thought of hiding fish around the apartment before moving out. Her landlady was a b*tch, though
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