And lawyers wonder why people hate them

Fox News worker sues over bedbugs in office

Fri May 30, 2008 1:37pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Fox News employee who says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being bitten by bedbugs at work filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the owner of the Manhattan office tower where she worked.

Jane Clark, 37, a 12-year veteran of Fox News, a unit of News Corp, said she complained to human resources after being bitten three times between October 2007 and April 2008. She said she was ridiculed and the office was not treated for months.

Beacon Capital Partners, which owns the tower in midtown Manhattan, said in a statement that it had not been made aware of the problem and that it was the responsibility of tenants to manage infestations.

"As a prudent step, we are bringing in outside, independent experts to review the situation," the statement said.

The suit did not say how much Clark was seeking in damages.

Clark, who says she's been diagnosed with PTSD and can no longer work, has filed a separate workers compensation claim with News Corp, and the company is paying her medical bills and lost wages. A News Corp spokeswoman declined to comment because News Corp was not named in the lawsuit.

"They made a lot of mistakes," Clark said through tears at a news conference at the office of her lawyer, Alan Schnurman, who said he has brought numerous bedbug cases. [*SMC note: I found news links to these : March 2006, and September 2007. Hardly seems "numerous", but w'ever.]

"I didn't want my baby to get bitten. I was terrified of bringing it home," Clark said.

She said she believed a colleague who used her workstation on weekends, and who no longer works for Fox News, brought the infestation to the office. Clark's home was never infested.

Clark says she suffers nightmares and keeps a flashlight at her bedside so she can check for bugs during the night.

"It's their obligation to the working public to provide a safe environment," Schnurman said.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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As an attorney, as a New Yorker, as a believer in victim's rights, and as a human being, I am incensed. I personally find this to be a ridiculous, horrific and abusive mockery of both our legal and medical systems, but mainly it is a wound salting to people who REALLY suffer PTSD.

HOW DARE THIS WOMAN AND HER LAWYER SUE FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER CAUSED BY F*CKING BED BUGS???!!!

PTSD is suffered by war veterans, victims of adult and childhood sexual, mental and physical abuse, victims of war, and victims and witnesses of shocking, horrifying, catastrophic events like the WTC bombings. Children living in war-ravaged countries, yes. Employees subject to constant mental, racial, and sexual harassment, yes. Soldiers who cradled their dying comrades in their arms, yes. Women (and men, to be fair) who cower in fear when someone raises their voice in anger because they expect it to be followed by a violent mental and/or physical assault, yes.

A middle-aged professional white woman living in New York City (or a nearby suburb) who has had a decade of success within the same company that DOESN'T block her claim for Worker's Comp AND pays her lost wages AS WELL AS her medical expenses, who claims nightmare-inducing psychological damage from three bed bug bites between October 2007 and April 2008? No.

No.

No.

No.

And....

(in case you haven't yet figured out how I feel about this)

NO!

If the suit was for failing to provide a safe, healthy employment environment, I'd say okay.

If the suit was for panic/anxiety attacks due to the onset of

Entomophobia (let me first acknowledge that I am not a medical professional, nor am I a trained psychologist, but I do know how to read, research, question and interpret medical opinions and terminology -- that being said, it is my redoubtable opinion that Jane Clark meets the DSM-IV requirements to even be classified as having Entomophobia since it is highly unlikely that if she did that she would go looking for them - especially in the middle of the night...it sounds more like a mild, generalized anxiety of bed bugs -- similar to many people's anxiety at seeing a spider or a roach), I'd say okay.

If the suit was for psychological trauma due to being the subject of constant ridicule as "the bed bug lady", I'd say okay (it is mentioned in the story that she "was ridiculed"...but that's all it says, and there is no apparent claim of this being tied to her PTSD), I'd be a little skeptical because the likelihood of anyone knowing about her issue unless she told them seems sketchy, but at least I could buy the argument.

If the suit was even for punitive damages due to the company's HR department failing to do any follow-through and escalation of her complaints, I'd say okay.

But THIS???

I'm no expert on bed bugs, but it seems to me that if she could last seven months in what she considered an infected/infested environment and was concerned that she would bring home the little monsters to her child, she would have done what any NORMAL person (i.e., someone who could last seven months in an environment they considered infected/infested with bugs) would have done...(1) attempted to express to the cleaning crew her desire that the area around her desk be extra diligently cleaned and vacuumed, (2) gotten the entire office in an uproar over the situation, (3) threatened to go to a competing network with the story, and/or (4) confronted the weekend colleague and politely suggest that he have himself and his home treated. Odd though it may sound, It is entirely possible that despite all the news coverage in recent years of a resurgence in bed bugs in urban centers (especially NYC), said co-worker simply was unaware that not all the tiny little critters feeding on his body were supposed to be there.

Again, I'm no expert, but I find it iinteresting that it doesn't appear that anyone else was affected. Seems to me that over the course of seven months, these prolific little nasties would have expanded their feeding and breeding range to encompass the space at least ONE other co-worker (especially if there were enough of them that they started hanging out on Jane's clothes). At the very least, there should have been one person sufficiently subject to the power of suggestion that he or she would have developed a little paranoia at each itch or odd skin eruption. And you CERTAINLY would think at least one person who would have hopped on the lucrative bandwagon of this get-out-of-work-free-and-paid lawsuit if they thought they could pull it off or was sufficiently frightened of this potential threat. With no back-up support, Jane should have brought in her lawyer quietly and privately and negotiated an appropriate settlement agreement. If she thinks she was subject to ridicule in her own office, I hope she realizes how much ridicule she has subjected herself to as a result of splashing this all over the news.

But the heart, and bottom line, of this matter is the disgusting and reprehensible behavior of claiming PTSD as a result of three bug bites. Jane Clark should be ashamed of herself. Her attorney, Alan Schnurman, and whatever "medical professional" diagnosed her should both be hauled before their respective professional associations and disciplined. And every group dealing with the real effects of people afflicted with this terrifying trauma, as well as every individual who actually has suffered or does suffer from it, should join in a class action suit suing each and every one of them for fraud, abuse of the legal system, abuse of the public trust, misrepresentation and Crimes Against Humanity. At the very least, several representatives from the community should hold a press conference and denounce this parody of "concern" and "justice".

I intend to keep a close eye on the progression of this case (NY Supreme Court Index No: 107455-2008) and these people, and I can assure you that any updates I get will quickly get reported here. I really hope that this case is thrown out on its face and that sanctions are imposed as quickly as possible, otherwise I will seriously have to consider throwing my law degrees out the window.