Bedbug lawsuit bites motel owners
CHICAGO, Illinois — Federal appeals court judge Richard Posner upheld a Cook
County jury's $372,000 punitive damages tag against Motel 6 in a lawsuit
brought by packaging tradeshow visitors Burl and Desiree Mathias, who found
their downtown Chicago motel room on East Ontario Street (the motel is now a
Red Roof Inn under the same owners) was overrun with bedbugs, the
Chicago Tribune reported Nov. 25, 2003.
According to the newspaper; the motel had been
renting infested rooms for months; Posner concluded that the plaintiffs, who
received $5,000 each for pain and treatment of the bug bites, were each
entitled to the jury's award of roughly 37 times that, as motel management
rejected offers to exterminate for only $500, even when the problem reached
"farcical proportions."
In an important decision, Posner reasoned that
the award should be large enough to punish the wrongdoer and also to justify
a lawsuit, ensuring a legal climate for justice, the newspaper reported.
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