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BASEBALL BATS, BROOMSTICKS & INTIMIDATION, OH MY!

Noise is a bane to us all. 

It's often described as one of the ugly realities of urban living.

But nothing is worse than having a noisy neighbor. Loud music, barking dogs, meowing cats, crying babies, incessant banging, thumps and footsteps are enough to drive anyone mad.

So it's no surprise that relationships will sour when neighbors decide to take the law into their own hands or get vindictive or nasty.

By way of example, in Medows v. Stern , Marsha and Jonathan Medows alleged that David Stern, a fellow cooperative apartment owner who lived beneath them, engaged in a plot to intimidate and harass them by banging on his ceiling with a baseball bat and/or broomstick, "at all hours of the day and night for no purpose but to awake, annoy, frighten, intimidate and harass [the Medows] and their three-month old son."

In a complaint filed with the New York County Supreme Court, the Medows sued Stern for "intentional infliction for emotional distress" and for violating the cooperative's bylaws by making "excessive noise." When Stern moved to dismiss the case, alleging that the plaintiffs had failed to state a viable legal claim against him, the Supreme Court did not concur.

While intentional infliction of emotion distress usually requires a very high showing -- that is, "extreme and outrageous" conduct which exceeds "all possible bounds of decency ... utterly intolerable in a civil society,"-- the Supreme Court was of the opinion that, if the allegations made in the case proved true, Stern's "campaign of harassment" would comprise such proscribed behavior.

As for asserting a contract breach based on a neighbor's violation of the cooperative's bylaws, the Supreme Court concluded that the Medows were "third-party beneficiaries" of Stern's lease-related obligations. As a result, and in the absence of any appellate authority to the contrary, the court did not feel compelled to grant dismissal of the second claim at this juncture.

So, this time, Stern batted zero.

For a copy of the New York County Supreme Court case, please use this link: Medows v. Stern

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Special thanks to our friend and colleague Steven B. Shapiro, Esq., for bringing this decision to our attention.

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