VIRGINIA BEACH
A woman is suing an Oceanfront motel owner, contending that he knew bedbugs were in the room he leased to her and her infant son this year.
Michelle A. Scott is seeking $100,000 in compensation from Dan Perrella, owner of La Coquille Motel on 16th Street, for the medical treatment of her son. The boy was "significantly and permanently injured" by bedbug bites, "suffered itching, rashes, pock marks, scarring, humiliation and embarrassment and remains injured permanently from the insect infestation," she said in her complaint filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
Perrella, meanwhile, said the woman's son was covered with scabs when they checked in. When he asked whether the child was all right, Scott told him the boy had chickenpox.
After Perrella learned bedbugs were in the room, he said, he moved mother and child to one of his other properties, the Flagship Resort Inn. He suspects they brought the bugs to La Coquille.
The city health department has received two complaints of bedbugs at La Coquille this year.
One - the subject of this lawsuit - occurred in February. It was a "complete infestation" confined to a single room, said Erin Sutton, environmental health manager for the city's public health department.
The second complaint involved a few of the pests in another room in May, she said.
Through Labor Day weekend, city officials found bedbugs in 10 Beach hotels this year. Six had just a few bugs in a single room, Sutton said.
"Any hotel can be a victim of bedbugs being brought in, from five stars to no stars," she said. "With travelers being a transient population, they can bring them in."
She described the critters as a nationwide problem for the hotel industry and insisted "a bedbug complaint is not a reflection of the type of hotel it is."
Four hotels, including La Coquille, had more serious problems with the bugs.
The Oceanfront Super 8 and the Cerca del Mar motel had some bugs in multiple rooms, but not on the level of an infestation, Sutton said.
At the Castle Motel on Pacific Avenue, officials found infestations in some rooms and a few bugs in others, Sutton said.
That motel is also owned by Perrella. Two years ago, officials shut it down because of a bedbug infestation.
Perrella said then, and again this year, that he rid the 47-room property of the pests by fumigating and replacing mattresses. The work in 2007, he said, cost close to $40,000, and he estimated he lost an additional $20,000 in revenue.
Last week, he spent $1,400 to have a contractor spray for pests as a precaution before the Labor Day weekend, he said.
He said homeless guests who check in are often the source of the bugs, and he had begun to turn them away. "I don't need any more incidents."
The current lawsuit isn't the first that Perrella has faced over bedbugs.
A guest who stayed at the Castle Motel around the time of its 2007 infestation sued Perrella and eventually received a $10,000 settlement, he said.
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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He(and I) are right
I work in the hotel industry in loss control. All you have to do is a quick web search, find qualified and dependable sources(science, not news per se)and read for yourself. Every hotelier I work w/ has spent money on eradication and bed bags to deter pests. They have no protection from insurance on the property, but only on the liability. If the hotel owner has to remove all furnishings it is at their own cost. They are literally frightened and will do anything to halt this issue. If you feel the elimination of pesticides is not an issue, you will have to explain why India can deal w/ this issue, but we cannot. Before you get to far, you should note that I deal w/ this on a daily basis.
It is people who call for litigation and damages, accusing someone of victimizing them falsely that are the problem w/ this country. You apparently w/o knowing are advocating destruction industry in the USA. It may sound bad when said aloud but it is what it is.
Proud to be in the minority.
Answer
The comment on illegals came from another poster, but the pilot police removed it. You'll have to ask him/her to back it up for you. You lost me on the Glen Beck thing. My education backs up my credibility on mosquito control, not Glen Beck. And I am comparing mosquitoes and bed bugs as pests that are seeing a resurgence due to reduced control capabilities. I know why DDT's registration was cancelled and when. The timeline suggests it's cancellation and that of other pesticides could very well have contributed to most pest resurgence. I know what I'm talking about. Some just can't comprehend.
The hotel name kind of
The hotel name kind of sounds like "La Cockaroacha."
History Lesson
I'm sorry some of you are "confused" by my comments. Maybe logic and a quick lesson in history and timelines will help! Illegals? that was another poster. Fogging works? Maybe when "foggers" were used back in the 60's. Today, ULV misters are used and I stand by my comments on their efficacy as used by today's methods. Class dismissed.
Science vs Opinion
Once again, we have opinions being made by posters with no factual proof. Fact one- there are just as many tourists now than there was back in 1980's and hoteliers have always tried for the more inexpensive services. I won't even qualify the "nasty" comment. The timeline shows when chlorinated hydrocarbons, and then organophosphates, were eliminated, and the methods of applications drastically modified, pests that harbor in tight, secretive places increased. We have lost long term residual chemicals that would effect these insects hiding in their deep harborages. I'm talking science, not opinion. If the previous poster was correct, why aren't we overrun by cockroaches from overseas. Did hotel owners and tourists just recently become cheap and nasty? Side note- I didn't say any of your "girls" had anything to do with DDT, I said MOST PESTICIDES!
That's Mosquitoes with an "e"
Yes, even mosquitoes are controlled differently by cities. Today, the "fogging" trucks operate for show only. Only during very light winds, high humidity and moderate temperatures will the misting machines even come close to some adult kill. Schools have all but eliminated pest control inside and around buildings, but last year alone we have seen classrooms and cafeterias across the country temorarily closed to eliminate flea and cockroach infestations. Bedbugs may have been helped by illegals, but it was the entire global transport increase where bugs were brought into areas in the U.S. where now pesticides are not applied that has helped them get a foothold. It took about 15 years, but this is only the beginning. The new regulatory CZAR will allow these pests to sue us because it's their property too!?!? Don't believe me, look up Cass Sunstein's record for yourself.
The Real Reason
The resurgence in bedbugs is not just the elimination of DDT, but the elimination of most pesticides that were effective in controlling these pests AND the drastic reduction in the way these pesticides were applied. POLITICS played into this. Three women, two from the west, one from the east, decided that pesticides were too dangerous, especially when applied around our children. When they got together and wielded more power, most common pesticides were reduced and the ones that were left had to be used only in specific areas. Pelosi, Boxer and Hillary Clinton have succeeded in saving the children- or have they?! (Bedbugs, mosquitos, fire ants, cockroaches and fleas shutting down schools, etc.) Now you know the rest of the story!
Unfortunately
when you make up the rest of the story off the top of your head it's usually 100% wrong. As it is here. Do some reading.
Don't cite Paul Harvey
when you don't even know what you are talking about. DDT was outlawed in 1972. And you should look up why DDT was outlawed.
um...no
DDT was taken off the market a loooong time before Hillary and peers were in charge. The REAL reason there is a larger number of bedbug infestations in this country's hotels is simple: 1. There are many more foreign tourists visiting the US now and the critters backpack in their luggage 2. Hotel owners want to spend as little as possible on upkeep. 3. Most people are nasty. Ask any housekeeper.
empathize
getting bitten by those disgusting bloodsuckers can be traumatic, it's happened to me at least twice while staying in a hotel. i feel for the hotel owner because it must be so hard to deal with bedbugs. all you need is one guest to transport a few bedbugs and then the next guest gets bitten. you can't call an exterminator after every guest. i triple check the room and bed and mattress and headboard. i use bug proof bags for my clothes so i don't bring back bedbugs to my home and i use an allersac travel sheet to help protect me should i miss finding the bedbugs in the room. i also carry some eco bug spray to ward them off. so far so good. last month i was in a hotel in Georgia, i went through my checking routine, went to bed and in the morning i noticed a few rust coloured spots at the foot of my allersac but no bites that i could see or feel. traveling is becoming a bit problematic these days between bedbugs and swine flu.
The reality of Tort reform in Medical Malpractice--it allows...
people to recover ALL actual medical expenses, lost past & future income and other expenses that can be translated into dollars--such as home health services or transport that may be needed by the victim/patient. Tort Reform laws cap non-economic damages for subjective claims like pain and suffering, disfigurement, and extremely subjective things that attorneys use to seek compensation. Non-ecomomic damages are typically capped at a maximum of $500,000. That prevents lawyers like John Edwards from "channeling" an unborn baby in order to line his pockets with 30% to 40% of a $6.5-million jury award like the one he received. If trial lawyers care about children so much why not just keep 10% of what the jury awards and let the family keep the rest? That's what our doctors are up against--not to mention that about 85% of all lawsuits against doctors FAIL, but they have to pay attorneys fees and insurance to protect themselves against them anyway.
"It seems that in these
"It seems that in these modern times somthing could be done to prevent this "third world" type problem. Darn shame folks come down and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars and end up being Eaten Alive by these Nasty little critters."
This problem does not occur in 3rd world countries. It occurs primarily in the EU, and is spreading here. Why? DDT was banned. So as a result the profits from a domestic business will now be transferred to the attorneys. mustang.freddy states that we will rue the day the children are not safer as a result of litigation. I say look around. Are you really worried about your kids safety this week or is your real concern feeding and housing them. The lawyers are destroying the fabric of our society. All of our jobs are leaving because of our idiotic system that is kept in place by governing attorneys(see congress, senate, current pres.
Hotels cannot even buy insurance for this type of risk. Your literally pulling the money out of an industry and handing it over to the lawyers. And for what? Bug bites?
how much?
How much are these injuries worth? Was the business owner negligent? Cast your stones, but it's up to a judge to decide these issues.
Maybe if we get the tort reform some of you wish for we'll see the end of parents suing because their children were injured.
Tort reform?
What, this lady should just 'suck it up'? And this defendant is a babe in the woods? Give me a break.
Before you comment
be sure to read up on bed bugs and what they can do, all it takes is one night in a room that's moderately infested can inflict serious bites and illness onto a victim some of which can last a life time.
Precautions include not taking free used beds and bedding material into your home as this is a method of transportation.
When traveling inspect your luggage and place your suit cases up on metal stands. Look for signs of bed bugs in the room including red to brown spots on sheets and along the base of bed fraims and walls.
Seriously use google and learn about this pest.
And $100,000 is the same amount a woman won a recently for the same problem which left her inflicted with a life time of problems because of bed bug bites.
Lifetime of problems? Really ? LOL
You might want to read some more on them. They're little more than a mosquito or Chigger bite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug
Part of the article.
Disease transmission
Bedbugs seem to possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another, but there have been no known cases of bed bugs passing disease from host to host.
Gee didn't a woman get thousands for spilling coffee? No surprise what the gold diggers can obtain anymore.
Hopefully, I'm mistaken, but...
you're not using wiki as a trusted source of info, are you? Although some casual information can be found there, it is NOT a creditable source.
The trial
judge and appeals courts reduced it, but the jury ran away with it. Should have said that in the previous post.
Actually
she got millions for spilling that hot coffee while she was driving, and she was over 80. Instead of the jury considering her lack of good judgement they let sympathy rule.