After more than a decade of battling her condominium association over its continued pesticide use and its refusal to remove carpeting she said was making her sick, an Illinois resident has won a $2.5 million federal jury verdict.
What happened?
ABC7 Chicago reported that a federal jury awarded Prospect Heights resident Chris Kraszynski $2.5 million in her Fair Housing Act case against the Rob Roy Country Club Village Condo Association. Her lawsuit focused on whether the association failed to accommodate disability and health concerns related to pesticide exposure.
The outlet reported that in 2009, Kraszynski asked permission to remove the carpeting in her unit, saying it contained pesticides that were harming her health. She submitted letters from her doctors in support of the request, but the association denied it.
Kraszynski said the carpet was never removed, but the association still sued her in 2010, arguing that she had violated bylaws requiring wall-to-wall carpeting in units. As ABC7 Chicago reported, a default judgment later led to nearly $600,000 in fines, fees, and interest after Kraszynski missed a court appearance claiming she was ill at the time.
She also said landscape pesticides and other chemicals continued to be sprayed outside her unit despite the health concerns she had raised.
ABC7 reported that the awarded $2.5 million comes from a separate lawsuit with the condominium board and covers the health damages Kraszynski suffered via the ongoing spraying. The outlet also reported that the verdict does not require the association to stop future pesticide spraying.
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HOA and condo boards across the country have repeatedly been accused of blocking changes that residents say would improve their quality of life or lower costs.
In other cases, associations have fought homeowners over installing rooftop solar panels, replacing grass with native plant lawns, or making other eco-friendly property updates.
Kraszynski told ABC7 that the win came after a long and hard battle, and, after winning the funds, she hopes to help others facing similar situations.
"I'm going to hopefully use it to probably start some sort of organization of my own, some charitable work where I can use it to help individuals who are in positions like me," she said, as reported by ABC7.
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