Articles Posted in Negligence

Last month The City sued the landlord of a Tenderloin apartment building for forcing tenants to live in substandard conditions such as bedbugs and with drug-dealing gang members keeping them “like prisoners in their own homes.” The public nuisance lawsuit claims the owner of a six-story, 88-unit apartment building at 245 Leavenworth St. Accoding to the lawsuit, the landlord kept the building in substandard conditions despite repeated violation notices since 2009. In addition garbage piled outside, mold and mildew, and a damaged elevator and apartment doors inside. The lawsuit also alleged that Wai allows the building to be used as a headquarters by members of a gang to sell drugs and conduct other criminal activity. According to sfexaminer.com, the continued defiance had left The City with no choice but to seek a court order to protect tenants and neighbors.

The lawsuit cites 13 separate police reports between 2009 and 2011 that refer to gang activity in the at the building and surrounding area. One reported incident involves a man who chased another man from his apartment after the man punched his fist through his window. The resident was then swarmed outside by at least 10 other males who punched him in the head and neck. The resident told police that the group regularly loitered outside the building and threatened residents. Four of the suspects were later identified as members of a gang. And another report documented the fear residents felt over leaving their homes because of the criminal activity and intimidation by the gang. Other reports noted sales of marijuana, hashish, oxycodone, crack cocaine and heroin in front of the property and on the block; violation of a stay-away order from the property by a suspect on felony probation; and assaults and drive-by shootings in the area by members of the gang.

Here at the Brod Law Firm we have over 10 years experience fighting for the rights of tenants who have faced living in substandard conditions. The stigma and frustration tenants go through can be unbearable at times, and we are able to take away some of that burden by helping them collect damages for their pain and suffering, and any lost wages or hospital bills for injuries they experienced due to substandard living, such as coping with a bed-bug infestation or black mold. Leases for apartment buildings include what is known as an implied warranty of habitability. Landlords must maintain these standard necessities for every unit their buildings. Any issues with a unit or building can result in breaches of habitability. Typically if one unit is having problems with bedbugs, mold or faulty plumbing, then there is high probability that the entire building is also affected by the same problems. If you live in a building with substandard habitability, you should contact our firm. We provide representation in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. We offer free consultations and work on a contingency basis, meaning we don’t ask for a fee unless a recovery is made.

Social status, gender, relegious creed, and race matter not to bedbugs. Did you know there are exterminator units out there dedicated to the eradication of bedbugs? Often they are called to five star hotels, hostels, shelters, low income hotels, and camps. It can cost between $500 to $750 to exterminate a single room, and up to $5,000 to exterminate an entire house. If untreated, they can create colonies of thousands in just a few weeks. The bedbug resurgence has caused people to seek counsel among each other as they face the stigma associated with the situation. As result edbuggers.com was created as a means of support and a coping mechanism for victims who have been traumatized by bedbugs. Back in 2007, California was forced to issue state bedbug guidelines. Laura Krueger, a public health and writer of the new bedbug guidelines for California Department of Health Services, states that California does not use as harsh chemicals as we used to and do not spray mattresses with insecticide before selling them anymore and that bedbugs are becoming increasingly resistant to the few chemicals left. Unfortunately, some of the chemicals used to get rid of them can make people sick.

Last week, the CDC cautioned in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report of the dangers associated with using pesticides to treat bed bugs, as there has been acute illness associated with insecticide used to control bedbugs in seven states. The main contributing factor of those who became ill has to do with misuse and overuse of pesticides and insecticide products. There was one death reported due to misuse which is an example of the extreme desperation victims of bedbugs. An already ill woman, both physically and psychologically, used 9 cans of fogger in one day, on two separate days, as well as applied insecticide to her hair and body. Other people spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars trying to get rid of them, and the toll extermination takes on a person’s financial and psychological well-being can be costly. Some people report nausea, vomiting, headaches, and tremors from exposure to the chemicals used.

Sadly, even after a thorough extermination, some bed bugs may remain, and efforts such as quarantining a room are pointless, as bed bugs can live for an entire year without a blood feeding. However, because the pest control industry is so tightly regulated in most states, it may be possible to determine whether a property owner /manager acted negligently by looking to the state’s standards and regulations for pest control professionals. Pest control professionals must act in accordance with state regulations or face potential liability in many forms, as they can and have been sued for failing to get rid of an infestation as promise to the plaintiff, not living up to their warranty of service, and in a few sensational cases property damage caused by negligent discharge of flammable chemicals. When someone is the victim of a bed bug infestation it is sometimes difficult to assign liability for the infestation. Common targets of homeowner’s lawsuits include hotels, landlords and pest control companies.

Since bed bugs are often difficult to recognize by the untrained eye, it take time for victims to recognize that any health side effects they may experience were caused by bedbugs. Unfortunately, these lapses make it difficult to determine the source of the infestation. Often bed bus will attach to luggage or clothes and hitch a ride from a hotel, hospital, or friends house and follow a person to their bed where they are fruitful and multiply until your client has a genuine infestation. The good news is that legal entomology experts have developed methodologies to determine the origin of an infestation based on the species of insect. Victims of bedbugs infestations can seek to recover financial and physical personal injuries, emotional distress, as well as negligence, misrepresentation, violations of code and contract breach. Here in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors hearings are held regarding on-going inspections procedures, reporting, and referral procedures, enforcement of, prevention and control of bed bugs by the Department of Public Health, and landlords in San Francisco can be sued for threatening public safety if the department finds an infestation of bedbugs in any building.
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According to ABC World News, at least five states are seeking assistance from the Department of Defense for help with the growing presence of bedbugs in this country, and Ohio just asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for special permission to use a banned pesticide to eradicate the growing problem of bedbugs in this country. Half a century ago the United States had nearly eradicated the insects; however, the ban of the use of powerful pesticides like DDT, as well as reduced use of narrow spectrum products targeting specific pests, have enabled the insects to survive, thrive, and build pesticide resistance. The growing problem with bed bug infestations has been linked to increased travel. The US Centers for Disease and Prevention are reporting that the US is experiencing what is being described as an alarming return of the tiny bloodsucking parasites. This is happening just as the EPA issued a warning against using outdoor chemicals indoors, because some chemicals adversely affect the central nervous system and can lead to skin and eye irritation and cancer. As a result of the new invasion of bedbugs, people who are experiencing infestations in their apartments are filing lawsuits.

According to WebMD, bedbugs are known to Biologists as true bugs. For the layman, this means they are wingless insects that are considered a parasite, meaning they feed on blood and nothing else. Bedbugs are flat and oval, about ¼ inch in diameter. They look like a small lentil. The vermin are brownish in color, but take on a rusty mahogany color after a blood meal. Close up they are covered with microscopic hairs that give it a banded appearance when it’s engorged with blood. Newly hatched bedbugs are light tan, translucent and hard to see. Bedbugs don’t actually bite but suck. They are equipped with a long, sharp, thin, hallow spike-shaped beak used to pierce the skin. Once they pierce the skin, saliva containing an anticoagulant that keeps the blood from clotting is injected so that they can feed. It may also contain a mild anesthetic. Most people don’t feel the bug feeding. You know you’ve been a pierced by when an itchy red dot with a lighter red ring around it appears on your skin. There will often appear one or more straight lines of these bites on your body, which means more than one bug has pierced your skin. Scratching bed bugs can lead to secondary infection. The good news is bedbugs are not known to transmit infectious diseases.

A common misconception people have is that bed bugs are invisible. They reason they seem invisible is because they only come out night. During the day they hide in bedding, creases of a mattress, bed frame, or in tears in the wallpaper. They also hide behind pictures and baseboards. They can end up travelling quiet far and manage to get into books telephones, radios e and attach themselves to clothing. They don’t fly, but they can move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings, and they can infest other rooms if you don’t catch them early enough. Female bedbugs may lay hundreds of eggs, each of which is about the size of a speck of dust, over a lifetime. The earliest sign of bedbugs, other than physical symptoms, is blood on the sheets, as wounds from bedbug bites bleed a little. And bedbug excrement is a liquid that appears as darker spots on the sheets. If you’ve got lots of bedbugs, your bed will have the distinctive sickly-sweet smell that bugs give off. Be aware that their breeding patters are pretty rapid, a single female bedbug lays 10 to 50 eggs every three to 15 days. The sticky eggs are laid near where they hide. If they feed regularly, bedbug nymphs become adults in two to six weeks.
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