Lawsuit of the Day: Eau de TTT Civil Suit
Some people love perfume. Some people hate it. Susan McBride says it makes it "difficult for her to breathe and impossible to do her job."
McBride filed a suit against the city of Detroit last year under the Americans with Disabilities Act, because of her government co-worker's perfume. The Detroit News reports that Michigan District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff has ruled that the suit can proceed:
Associated Content has more details:
[McBride] claims that in addition to wearing a strong personal fragrance that made her sick enough to leave the office, her co-worker also utilized a plug-in air freshener. The unnamed co-worker had allegedly agreed to discontinue the use of the plug -in air freshener but refused to do without perfume.McBride, who is looking to have the workplace ban the use of such items to accommodate her sensitivity to them is seeking undisclosed damages as well. She has had to take time off of work, has required medical treatment for her illness, and has also had to suspend the fertility treatment she had been undergoing due to the medications she has needed to take resulting from the sensitivity.
The suit smells like money to us, especially given Michigan's past treatment of perfume-hater suits. A radio DJ was awarded $10.6 million in 2005 after being sickened by a colleague's "romantic, sensual, emotional" perfume, per the Detroit News.
There is no identification of the offensive perfume. If the co-worker wore one of those terrible pharmacy-purchased vanilla-scented ones, we suspect the jury will be full of pity for McBride.
Judge says perfume lawsuit can proceed [The Detroit News]
Detroit City Employee Sues City Over Co-Workers Perfume [Associated Content]
(41) Comments
294th !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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294th !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A play on toilet! Oh my, LOL!
These guys are right - http://www.bitterlawyer.com/index.php/columns_detail_comment/seven_species_of_legal_website_trolls/?cat_id=13
Please immediately update with a photo and bio of Eliza Gray.
It may be about money, but perfume/cologne wearers are evil! Why is it so hard for them to understand we don't want their stinking chemicals in our nose anymore than we want secondhand smoke in our nose? Hopefully there is a purgatory where all of them will be forced to endure smells they find obnoxious, sometimes painful, before they get let into heaven.
It had to be Canoe.
It had to be Canoe.
It had to be Panther. 60% of the time, it works every time.
I just knew this wasn't an Elie post. Way to go Kash. Rock the Kashbar.
District of Michigan = TTT
As someone who has tried a combination of drugs to try to put up with coworkers' scents to no avail, I saw hang the bitch
7 - There is no heaven. And we are already in hell. Deal.
Nice post. What's Elie doing, counting Pop Tarts.
Whatever...Bob Vance bought me this perfume in metropolitan Orlando.
Ok, Kashmir? TTT? Seriously? The law students on this site can throw that term around to justify their sad, empty lives, but as an editor you're supposed to be a step above the riffraff.
Lat, you need to rein in these rookie editors.
What? No coverage of the Wal-Mart stampede lawsuit? Sheesh!
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94REDKG1&show_article=1
12 = TTT. There is no "District of Michigan." It's a two-district state. Don't hate cuz you can't relate; that's just how it be when you f'n with heavyweights.
That's just the natural smell of Detroit... Ass, with a hint of schwetty balls.
So this bitch gags when she smells perfume and plug ins. That sucks, and I sympathize. I also think it's absurd that her co-worker and supervisor couldn't come up with some way of resolving this. But how this judge found that her displeasure rose to the level of "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities" is beyond me. Can she PHYSICALLY breathe when she smells perfume. If the answer is yes (which it clearly is or this case would have been moot), then that should have been the end of the inquiry.
And big ups to 16 for The Office quote.
Please immediately update with a photo and bio of Eliza Gray.
balls
HR at a firm where I used to work forced me to switch offices with a less senior employee because she claimed to have a "sensitivity" to the "fumes" from the xerox machine that was closer to her (smaller and less desirable) office. I plotted her demise on a daily basis.
sTTTanford
i get dizzy from Elie's fat fried doughnuts.
"Week-old story now relevant." That should've been the lede.
People need to understand that perfume can have definite health problems for some people. For me, it triggers migraines, sneezing, asthma etc. I think it is really selfish of people to think that they have more of a right to splash on perfume than I do to breathe and not have a pounding headache. Please, people, be nice about this. Is it really that big of a deal to forego perfume so that someone else can breathe?
24 - That sucks that you had to switch offices, but fumes from Xerox machines can defn trigger health problems for some people. I had to move my printer out of my office for that reason.
S&C matches Skadden.
Someone call the whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance! =P
We are a pathetic nation of whiners
this site is going down.
i mean, law.com has more news.
sad.
19 = TTT. Who the hell cares about anything Michigan?
Anyway, any district/circuit outside Second, Seventh or Fed is TTT
Smelling my coworkers' B.O. gives me health problems.
Christ, what a bunch of whiny bitches. No one believes that perfume can actually make you sick. Just shut your pie hole and do your fucking job. God, I hate people.
36 - Perfume makes a lot of people sick. Now, filing a lawsuit may be a drastic move - that's another story. But co-workers' perfume can be a big problem for people with allergies, migraines, etc. If you don't believe people who tell you that, you are an insensitive jerk and I hope someday you develop a health issue that people are mean about.
If I hear about one more ridiculous lawsuit in the news, I might just join the nutjob tort reformers.
Our legal system is broken if this lawsuit is allowed past MSJ.
Kashmir is hot, and so is her name. Elie is a jackass bolshevik. Bring Lat back!
Guys at my high school wore perfume all the time. It was no big deal.
21 -
If you haven't been there, you wouldn't get it. I used to have no trouble around various smells, from diesel exhaust to perfume. Then I developed allergies and asthma. Before then, I just thought people like the plaintiff in this case were a bunch of whiners. Now I get it - when you're truly allergic to these things, you can't breathe. And THAT is a qualifying disability under the ADA. Not that I've ever sued over it, but I had to pass up more than one job when I couldn't take the air in the office building.