Where There's Smoke, There's a Lawyer

When we asked the Selbins about that, Jonathan Selbin wrote us, " I have lived in the building since 1999. My wife and I looked at what is now my apartment on several occasions, and on those occasions there was no strong smell of smoke in the hallways. I do not know why that was -- perhaps she was away during those visits. Or perhaps it was because I visited during the day, and the smoke is usually worst first thing in the morning and again in the evening, in other words, times she is home."

One other point. Their building is on Broadway in New York City. There are lots of chimneys, and exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, and buses. How pristine does the air have to be? We're breathing all kinds of things around here.

This week Jonathan Selbin wrote ABC News and asked, "Have you asked Ms. Huff how she would react if we put dog poison in the shared hallway?" So we asked her.

"How can you say something like this?" Huff said.

Selbin also wrote ABC News, "We also do not want to try to tell Ms. Huff to stop smoking (in her home or anywhere else), nor is it our business what she does in the privacy of her home. It is only because her smoke comes into our common, shared hallway that it has become our business."

You don't want Jonathan Selbin getting into your business. He's a class action lawyer. He sues companies for millions. His law firm Web site brags that a magazine named him a "Super Lawyer." It's not good to fight with a "super lawyer."

This week, he sent Huff a settlement agreement with a new list of demands that she must meet if she hopes to get out from under his lawsuit. It includes one that says she will not seek any further publicity.

"I don't want to harm anyone. I'm trying not to smoke," Huff said. "But you know, I cannot do more than that. This is my demon, I'm a smoker. What can I do? I'm smoking for 40 years."

What can she do? Does she have to move? On Thursday night she agreed to his demands. Give me a break.

UPDATE: Jonathan Selbin posted the following response to the report on the message board:

"I have read these comments with interest. Based upon the one-sided hit piece John Stossel chose to run on me without presenting the full factual background, I can understand why so many people have had such a strongly negative reaction. Stossel had -- a week before the piece ran -- our statement about the situation which provided the full story, but chose to simply ignore it. I do not expect I will change many minds here, but I did [think] you might want the full story, and might want to question why Stossel chose to present only one side. To view the statement we provided to him in its entirety, you can go to: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2008/04/06/stossels-folly--selbin-responds.aspx

The only change from what is set forth there is that the settlement we agreed to with our neighbor (which Stossel characterized as our "latest set of demands," when it was in fact an agreement negotiated with her lawyer, not some list of our demands) requires her to use the donated air purifiers and a smokeless ashtray. Period. Don't believe everything you read (or see on TV)."

ABC News asked people on the street -- smokers and non-smokers -- what they thought of the lawsuit. We told them that a woman who smokes in her own apartment is being sued by her neighbors because they say they can smell the smoke in the hallway, and asked them for their reactions.

Follow up questions included: How would you react if someone sued you for smoking in your own apartment?
Where can you smoke nowadays?
The neighbors that sued are lawyers themselves. What do you think about that?

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF THEIR RESPONSES.

ABC News Producer Frank Mastropolo contributed to this report.