Condo owner sues for second-hand smoke

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BOSTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A Boston real estate broker faced a lawsuit Tuesday accusing him of misleading a condo buyer about second-hand smoke in the building, court watchers say.

Tobacco law specialists say it's one of the first lawsuits of its kind to go to trial in Massachusetts, The Boston Globe reported.

The Globe said the suit was brought Alyssa Burrage, a 32-year-old advertising company employee with a history of asthma, who says real estate broker Joseph DeAngelo misled her about a cigarette smoke smell she noticed before buying a $405,000 condominium in Boston's South End.

Burrage claims DeAngelo said the tobacco smell was present because the condo's former owner smoked. But she says she discovered after moving in that second-hand smoke was coming from other condo owners in the building.

"I'm certainly not a person who's on a soapbox saying people shouldn't smoke," Burrage told the Globe. "But when it affects somebody else, that's where the line needs to be drawn. It's an awful thing to not be able to escape from something that's hurting your health."

In court filings, the broker's lawyer argues, "DeAngelo never made any misrepresentations, or any representations at all, concerning the source of the alleged smoke smell."