Utah Couple sues cigarette-smoking neighbor
04/03/99
A Utah couple has sued their downstairs neighbor for lighting up his daily morning cigarette, complaining the smell wafting through the building is unbearable.
Matthew and Amanda Parrish of Centerville filed the ETS suit in state court in February. Legal experts say the Environmental Tobacco Smoke lawsuit, is believed to be the first to challenge the right of people to smoke in their own home. The couple bases the suit on a 1996 amendment to Utah's nuisance laws that included "tobacco smoke that drifts into any residential unit a person rents, leases, or owns."