“For Woodbridge woman, bedbugs bite, but lawsuit fails to fly” |
| For Woodbridge woman, bedbugs bite, but lawsuit fails to fly Posted: 18 Jun 2010 09:17 PM PDT WOODBRIDGE — A woman bitten by bed bugs in her Woodbridge apartment in 2007 lost her appeal today against the managers of the Kensington Apartment complex. A state appeals court supported a lower-court ruling in favor of Capitol Management Corp., saying Marilyn Mitchell did not prove that Capitol was negligent merely because of the presence of the bed bugs. Mitchell signed a lease for her one-bedroom, $935-a-month apartment in the 800-unit complex on Sept. 8, 2006. On Feb. 11, 2007, she reported there were bedbugs in her apartment and went to the management office "extremely agitated'' the next day, a Monday, according to the appeals court opinion. Management staff and a staff exterminator went to the apartment that afternoon and an extermination was ordered for that week. Mitchell threw out her clothing and furniture because no one could guarantee the infestation would be fully eradicated, and she was eventually diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, according to the opinion. She did not return to the apartment. At trial, she testified that her 10-year-old son was living with her but was not bitten. Although the woman in the apartment above hers had a bedbug problem two years earlier, no expert offered testimony about bed bug infestations or migration. There was no evidence of other bedbug problems in the complex, according to the opinion. Judge Lewis Paley in Superior Court, New Brunswick ruled in April 2009 that Mitchell failed to show Capitol was at fault. Paley pointed out that because of the lack of expert testimony it was pure speculation to say where the bedbugs came from. They could have arrived on Mitchell's furniture, he said. The two-judge panel agreed with Paley. "We disagree with plaintiff that there is any presumption of negligence merely because bed bugs were found in her apartment,'' the panel wrote. "We are satisfied that defendant did not breach its duty of reasonable care.'' Ken Serrano: 732-565-7212; kserrano@MyCentralJersey.com |
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