Stop Woodburning---Lawsuit Won!!!!!

Stop Woodburning---Lawsuit Won!!!!!!

In a case that proves where there's smoke there's ire, an Amherstburg couple has won a six-year legal battle to prevent a neighbour from burning wood at his home.

"Thank heavens! It's been a long haul," said Shirley Brandie Thursday.

Brandie and her husband, James, first took their neighbour to court in 2005 after what she described as three years of non-stop burning next door on Simcoe Street. According to the Brandies, Salvatore DeSantis was burning pressure-treated lumber, painted wood and composite materials in addition to logs and tree limbs.

Shirley Brandie said the smoke made being outside impossible. It even permeated her home despite her keeping her windows closed tight. She had to replace mattresses, furniture, carpeting, window coverings and ductwork. Her eyes burned, her throat hurt and she felt dizzy all the time.

A Superior Court judge granted the Brandies an injunction that prohibited DeSantis from burning anything that would result in the release of smoke from the property.

But the Brandies wanted the injunction to be made permanent and they wanted damages.

They got both this week when DeSantis agreed to a restrictive covenant on his property that prohibits him or any subsequent owner to ever burn and produce smoke. In addition, DeSantis must pay the Brandies $50,000.

"You can certainly call it a victory," said the Brandies' lawyer, James Ball.

Shirley Brandie said the couple is still out about $38,000 in legal fees, repairs to their home and replacement of their belongings.

But she said, "It's worth it . No matter who ever lives there, no one can ever burn."

The agreement came on the day the case was set for trial. The Brandies were armed with photographs of DeSantis's chimney and piles of wood products in his yard.

DeSantis wasn't up for a fight, said his lawyer, Luigi DiPierdomenico.

DiPierdomenico said DeSantis, 77, is suffering from "mental deterioration" and would not have been able to testify at trial. In a 2008 interview with the Windsor Star, DeSantis proudly gave a tour of his property, including the wood-burning stove and brick wood-burning oven in a greenhouse-like addition he built himself off the back of his home. He also showed his barn on Meloche Road filled to the rafters with hundreds of cords of firewood he said he hoped to burn.

"Mr. DeSantis does not believe he has done anything wrong," DiPierdomenico said Thursday. He suspects DeSantis may move.

"He may end up on his farm on Meloche Road where he doesn't have any neighbours to worry about and he can burn all he wants."

Shirley Brandie said throughout her battle, she sought the help of her town council, the fire department and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. But all were powerless to help.

She founded an international lobby group called the Wood Smoke Activist Network, publishing a monthly newsletter on the Internet that gets submissions from around the globe.

She said she will use this week's court ruling to push Amherstburg for a bylaw banning what she calls "nuisance smoke."

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star September 16, 2011--Canada

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/levied+wood+burning/5410916/story.html#ixzz1YA5qmP9q

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Below is a "letter to the editor" commenting on the above lawsuit----

Cheers to the Brandies
By John McCrossan

The Windsor Star September 30, 2011

Re: "Man levied wood burning ban" by Sarah Sacheli, Sept. 16

The Brandies are to be commended for their determination in seeing this issue through to a fair and healthy conclusion. It is sad that Mr. DeSantis would wait until the day of trial to acquiesce to the agreement ratified by the court. This speaks more of his attitude and belligerence than any "mental deterioration".

What is more sad is the ineffectiveness of local government agencies to protect their residents from the dangerous health hazards of raw wood burning. That the Brandies needed to invoke a "nuisance" law and not have the backing of local health and environmental laws speaks volumes to the cavalier manner in which Canadian agencies with authority and influence are treating our environment and the health of Canadians.

Ten per cent of adults and 15 per cent of children in Canada have asthma. Thousands more have lung cancer and other dreadful diseases. Burning wood in residential neighbourhoods accounts for 20 per cent particulate matter in winter months (source: Air Quality Group, Metro-Vancouver, Jan. 2011), this PM is a major trigger of breathing difficulties, heart arrhythmias, and asthma attacks. I hope that the Brandies have escaped serious and long-lasting health issues as a result of this wood smoke exposure.

It is a real pity the burning injunction is not attached to his person also - has Mr. De-Santis not heard of neighbourhood, regional, and global pollution?

Tonight I will have a glass of brandy and raise a toast to the Brandies of Windsor. Well done. Now I ask that all rational and thinking residents of Canada build on this small but important victory.

Step 1: Write to your municipal governments and insist they implement strong antiburning regulations starting with urban residential areas.

Step 2: Wssess electoral candidates before you next vote and choose those who have a track record of caring for their people and our local environments.

JOHN MCCROSSAN, Richmond, B.C.
© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Webmaster----A prohibition on all wood burning is the by-law that is sorely needed.