Suit over secondhand smoke targets real estate broker - water air purifier

Alisa Prague says she was pulled out of her new $405,000 apartment. Burrage, a 32-year-
Old advertising staff with a history of asthma first went to the bright living room and smelled cigarettes
In 2006, she and her real estate agent had an apartment in the south end of Boston.
But she claimed that the agent assured her that the owner must be a smoker and that the stench would disappear.
She said that after Burge moved into the house in the brick row of Milford Street, she found that second-hand smoke came from one of the two men living in the apartment below.
The association of men and apartments declined to address the issue and she had to move out, she added.
Today, in what tobacco law experts call one of the first such lawsuits of the Massachusetts trial, the jury will decide whether Burrage's realtor is responsible for the damage.
In recent years, the state has filed a handful of lawsuits for second-hand smoke, including several disputes between tenants in the housing court and landlords.
But legal experts say no one wins money losses in smoking cases.
If Burrage wins in Suffolk high court, it may encourage similar litigation and open up a new front in the fight against second-hand smoke.
After she left the building in May 2008, bur angrily rented out her apartment, saying she did not like confrontation and was not an anti-smoking crusader.
"Of course I'm not a person who says on a soap box that people shouldn't smoke," she said at the lawyer's Back Bay office . ".
"But this is where lines need to be drawn when it affects others.
Not being able to escape from something that hurts your health is a terrible thing.
Neither real estate agent Joseph D'Angelo nor his lawyer will comment on the case.
In a joint court document summarizing the case, DeAngelo and his employer, Gibson Sotheby's International Real Estate, denied that Burrage challenged him about the smoke in the apartment.
Attorney for the broker Jay S. "DeAngelo has never made any false statements or any statements about the source of the so-called smoke flavor
Gregory of Boston said in the document.
Burrage also sued two men from the apartment downstairs. Edward J.
The owner of the two, Alan. story garden-
Common apartment and Michael Scofield, smokers who have lived with Alan for 13 years-
And the Apartment Association.
According to Burrage's lawyer, Colleen C. , all three defendants settled out of court yesterday. Cook.
No details are provided.
Earlier in the day, Schofield's lawyer defended his client, saying that when the Massachusetts legislature banned smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces in 2004, it says it is still legal to smoke at home. “What Mr.
"It's completely legal that Scofield has been smoking at home," said Henry . ".
Goodman, a lawyer at Goodman ham
Still, Schofield agreed yesterday to pay the bur anger a settlement because doing so was cheaper than paying for the defense at trial, Goodman said.
The case against DeAngelo is expected to raise some thorny questions about people's right to smoke in their own apartments, and the duties of real estate agents to disclose accurate information about smoking to potential buyers.
Burrage, a Brookline native, said she and her parents had been to the apartment several times before she bought it --
The first home she had.
She loved its high ceilings, oversized windows, hardwood floors and decks.
She said, but she was concerned about the stench of smoke and noticed that De Angelo lit scented candles in an open house.
DeAngelo assured her that she claimed that the smell would disappear as the renovation and painting of bur became angry.
Bur Rage said that bur rage and her parents asked DeAngelo if they could contact the seller of the apartment or the agent of the woman who also worked for Gibson Sotheby's to confirm that she was
"He said he wouldn't let us go," he said . "
"He said it was his job.
Bur angrily moved into the apartment in August 2006, after what she said was about $45,000 in renovations.
But the smell didn't go away, she said, and she soon found that the smoke was coming out of the apartment below.
Burrage said that as her symptoms of asthma worsened throughout her life, she asked Schofield to smoke outside.
"This is my own home," she said.
She also asked Alan to hire a contractor to stamp his unit, she said, but he refused.
Alan objected to this in the pre-trial memo, saying that he had a contractor-sealed area where the smoke might float into Burg's apartment and he bought an air purifier, let his roommate smoke on the lower floor of the apartment.
The Environmental Health Office of the Boston Public Health Commission tested the air at Burrage apartment a month after she moved in.
According to a report in the court file, it detected nicotine in her apartment and "very high concentrations" in the laundry room ".
Burrage said she moved into the apartment in less than two years.
Richard Denard, president of the tobacco product liability program at Northeastern University, tracks second-hand smoke lawsuits across the country, and bur's angry lawsuits may cause apartment owners and associations to worry about being sued, and may lead to more restrictions on smoking in such buildings.
The case was also brought up by Mayor Thomas M.
Menino in Boston is pushing the city's public housing program to ban smoking.
The Boston Housing Authority recently said 14 units in the development of public housing in Dorchester Franklin Hill will be smoke-free as part of the pilot project.
Jonathan Salman can be reached at jsaltzman @ globe. com.