Bothered by pot smell, she sued her neighbor to stop smoking — and won
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D.C. judge has ruled that a man who smokes medical marijuana in his apartment must stop after a neighbor complained that the odor from his marijuana crept into her home and caused a nuisance.
Judge Ebony Scott ruled late Monday that while Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd could not prove she is entitled to damages, she successfully made the case that the smell is a private nuisance, and Scott ordered Thomas Cackett to stop smoking. Scott said that Cackett is licensed to buy marijuana but “he does not possess a license to disrupt the full use and enjoyment of one’s land.”
“Indeed, the public interest is best served by eliminating the smoking nuisance and the toxins that it deposits into the air, toxins that involuntary smokers have no choice but to inhale,” Scott wrote in her decision.
Cackett is banned from smoking at his address or within 25 feet of Ippolito-Shepherd’s address.
The decision is believed to be the first of its kind and could open the door to additional legal action.
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