50-58 Gainsborough St. Realty Trust v. Haile, et al.

A nonsmoker who lives with her husband in an apartment directly above a smoky bar was sued by her landlord for failure to pay rent.  The tenant had withheld the rent, alleging that the amounts of smoke seeping into her apartment  deprived her of the quiet enjoyment of that apartment.  A Housing Court judge (Daher, J.) ruled that the amount of smoke from the bar below had made the apartment “unfit for smokers and nonsmokers alike.”  The judge further ruled that “the evidence does demonstrate to the Court the tenants’ right to quiet enjoyment was interfered with because of the second-hand smoke that was emanating from the nightclub below.”  See Estes, A., “Tenant Wins Suit over Smoky Home,” Boston Herald, June 10, 1998, 1, 4; and “Judge: Landlord Must Stop Secondhand Smoke,” The Recorder (Greenfield, MA), June 11, 1998, 9.

13.4 TPLR 2.302, No. 98-02279, Boston Housing Court (1998).