{"id":7255,"date":"2006-11-30T14:18:38","date_gmt":"2006-11-30T19:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/11\/30\/noisy-shower-condo-lawsuit-aint-su"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:53","slug":"noisy-shower-condo-lawsuit-aint-sunk-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/11\/30\/noisy-shower-condo-lawsuit-aint-sunk-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"noisy-shower condo lawsuit ain’t sunk yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You may recall that we had a lot of fun earlier this year writing about the water-torture lawsuit brought by Denver lawyer Sheldon H. Smith<\/a>, on behalf of his parents, against their condo neighbor Shannon Peterson — the suit was based on her allegedly tortious, too-early and too-noisy morning showers. [See our prior posts: get that lawyer out of my shower<\/a>, Feb. 28 2006; and water-torture bathtub lawsuit still afloat<\/a>, April 26, 2006, which have lots of links to newspaper and weblog coverage, including Walter Olson’s \u00a0Overlawyered.com<\/em> posting<\/a>, which\u00a0brought the matter to our attention.] \u00a0 The Smiths wanted special-ed teacher Peterson to shower no earlier than 8 A.M.<\/p>\n

\"showerHead\"\u00a0\u00a0To no one’s surprise, Peterson’s friend and lawyer J. Michael Dowling<\/a> submitted a motion to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim.\u00a0 We had asked for feedback from Lawyer Dowling, and he\u00a0was good enough to leave the following Comment<\/a> yesterday, at our original posting:<\/p>\n

“The court recently denied [our] motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim asserting that there may be a claim if one doesn\u2019t allow your neighbors’ plumbers into your apartment. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, the lawsuit is still afloat.\u00a0 As we reported last April, Peterson had told the Denver Post<\/a><\/em> that: “\u201cI\u2019ve done everything I can think of to work this out,\u201d she said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had maintenance men remove all my tile and insulate the <\/font>pipes. I\u2019ve had sound engineers measure my unit and others in <\/font>the building. Nothing\u2019s abnormal. Even the homeowners\u2019 board <\/font>investigated and told the Smiths they should install sound barriers <\/font>in their unit.\u201d<\/font>\u00a0<\/font>\u00a0<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this goes to trial, of course, the court will hear evidence on what the parties (and their plumbers) did and didn’t do, and when.\u00a0 Perhaps condo law and tort experts will let us know just how much Peterson should have done, and how often, to avoid liability.\u00a0 We will keep you posted.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I get to reprise some of my favorite shower and bathtub haiku and senryu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"bathtub\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

in the shower
\nan economy size bar of soap
\nlands on my toe<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

by Tom Clausen\u00a0– Homework<\/em> (Snapshot Press 2000)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

midwinter bathing–
\nhis head, the moon
\nin the water<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nin dawn frost
\nat the bathhouse door
\nknocking<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0
\nmountain village–
\neven the horse bathes
\nin pure water<\/p>\n

\n. . . by Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

January thaw –
\nthe cracks reappear
\nin the birdbath<\/p>\n

. . . . by Yu Chang – Shiki Kukai (April 2000)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nfrom the shower
\na sad love song –
\nbathtub cricket<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

the shower massage\u00a0\u00a0 \"showerHead\"
\nfinds her navel —
\nbuddha smile<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

headful of suds
\nthe shower
\nturns cold.<\/p>\n

\n. . . . .. . . . .\u00a0 . by dagosan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 You may recall that we had a lot of fun earlier this year writing about the water-torture lawsuit brought by Denver lawyer Sheldon H. Smith, on behalf of his parents, against their condo neighbor Shannon Peterson — the suit was based on her allegedly tortious, too-early and too-noisy morning showers. [See our prior posts: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[555,900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-viewpoint"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1T1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12610,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7255\/revisions\/12610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}