Burning issue costs neighbour $270,000

Burning issue costs neighbour $270,000 TheSpec.com - Local

Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator

(May 9, 2008)

A Hamilton judge has ordered a Niagara couple to pay their next-door neighbours $270,000 in damages and legal costs for the nuisance caused by smoke from a wood stove in their garage.

It's believed to be the first Canadian court ruling involving health effects of wood smoke, which some experts say is as dangerous as tobacco smoke. Ontario Superior Justice James Ramsay blamed Travers Fitzpatrick of Fonthill -- who was Welland city manager when the suit was filed in 2002 -- for acts he called "reckless, destructive, persistent and heedless of their neighbours' physical integrity and property rights;" and blamed his wife, Valerie, for allowing them to happen.

In his judgment Feb. 28, Ramsay held them jointly responsible for paying David and Brenda Deumos general damages of $80,000, punitive damages of $20,000 and legal costs of $170,000.

Hamilton lawyer Lou Frapporti, who represented the Deumos, said he had "literally begged" the Fitzpatricks to settle for $5,000 to avoid a trial.