|
|
Login
Calendar
Register for an Event
All Events
Section Meetings
Seminars
Affiliate Events
Law School Events
Get Connected
Become a Member
Join A Section
Become An LRIS Panel Member
Sections
Committees
Administration of Justice
Appointments
Audit
Awards
Community Outreach
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Editorial
Education
Bridging the Gap
Finance
Judiciary Committee
Lawyer Referral & Information Service
Lawyer Well-Being
Leadership Development Committee
Legislative Resolutions
Mandatory Fee Arbitration
Mentoring
Mommy Esquire
Nominating
Pro Bono
Professionalism & Ethics
Veterans & Military
Masters Division
About Masters Division
Masters Division Board of Directors
Legends of the Law Award
Masters Division Photos
Masters Division ListServ
ADR Directory
Young Lawyers Division
About Young Lawyers Division
Young Lawyers Division Leaders
Young Lawyers Division Education Programs
Young Lawyers Division Photos
Helpful Links
Law Students
For Members
Membership
Membership Benefits
View New Members
Career Center
Racial Justice Task Force
Classified Ads
Directories
Membership Directory
Expert Witness & Attorney Support Directory
Judicial Council Forms
Court Info
Ethics Opinions
Civility Guidelines
Mentoring
HELP-Line
Listserv
OCBA Listserv Terms of Use
Legal Links
Education
Seminars
Section Meetings
Purchase Self-Study MCLE
CLE Requirements
State Bar MCLE Requirements
Public Services
Need A Lawyer?
OCBA Charitable Fund
OCBA Charitable Fund Facebook Page
Volunteer Opportunities
Community Outreach
Community Opportunities - How to Help with COVID-19 Relief Efforts
Judicial Evaluation
Disputing Attorney Fees
Veterans Legal Resources
Public Comment
News & Publications
OCBA News
COVID-19 Updates
OC Lawyer Magazine
Featured Articles
Cover Story
Presidents Page
A Criminal Waste Of Space
Ethically Speaking
Millar's Jurisdiction
Other Columns
Digital Edition
Submissions
Article Index
Featured Articles
OCBA eNews
Press Releases
Classified Ads
Find An Expert Witness
Advertising
About
Mission Statement
Vision Statement
OCBA By-Laws
OCBA Officers and Board of Directors
Affiliate Bar Associations
ABTL-Orange County
Celtic Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
Hispanic Bar Association
Iranian American Bar Association
Italian American Lawyers of Orange County
J. Reuben Clark Law Society
Orange County Asian American Bar Association
Orange County Criminal Defense Bar Association
Orange County Jewish Bar Association
Orange County Korean American Bar Association
Orange County Lavender Bar Association
Orange County Trial Lawyers Association
Orange County Women Lawyers Association
Thurgood Marshall Bar Association
History
History Podcast
OCBA Presidents
Franklin G. West Award
Harmon G. Scoville Award
Lei Lei Wang Ekvall Award
Centennial - We've Only Just Begun!
Centennial - Reaching Toward the New Millennium
Centennial - Building Buildings
Centennial - The First 70 Years
Centennial - From Frontierland to Tomorrowland
Centennial - A Maelstrom
Centennial - The More We Change
Centennial - Cases Courts
Centennial - Roaring 20s
Centennial - Introduction
Centennial - The Birth of a Bar
Centennial - The Second Decade
Strategic Plan 2020-2024
Contact Us
Need A Lawyer?
X
Calendar
Register for an Event
All Events
Section Meetings
Seminars
Affiliate Events
Law School Events
Get Connected
Become a Member
Join A Section
Become An LRIS Panel Member
Sections
Committees
Administration of Justice
Appointments
Audit
Awards
Community Outreach
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Editorial
Education
Bridging the Gap
Finance
Judiciary Committee
Lawyer Referral & Information Service
Lawyer Well-Being
Leadership Development Committee
Legislative Resolutions
Mandatory Fee Arbitration
Mentoring
Mommy Esquire
Nominating
Pro Bono
Professionalism & Ethics
Veterans & Military
Masters Division
About Masters Division
Masters Division Board of Directors
Legends of the Law Award
Masters Division Photos
Masters Division ListServ
ADR Directory
Young Lawyers Division
About Young Lawyers Division
Young Lawyers Division Leaders
Young Lawyers Division Education Programs
Young Lawyers Division Photos
Helpful Links
Law Students
For Members
Membership
Membership Benefits
View New Members
Career Center
Racial Justice Task Force
Classified Ads
Directories
Membership Directory
Expert Witness & Attorney Support Directory
Judicial Council Forms
Court Info
Ethics Opinions
Civility Guidelines
Mentoring
HELP-Line
Listserv
OCBA Listserv Terms of Use
Legal Links
Education
Seminars
Section Meetings
Purchase Self-Study MCLE
CLE Requirements
State Bar MCLE Requirements
Public Services
Need A Lawyer?
OCBA Charitable Fund
OCBA Charitable Fund Facebook Page
Volunteer Opportunities
Community Outreach
Community Opportunities - How to Help with COVID-19 Relief Efforts
Judicial Evaluation
Disputing Attorney Fees
Veterans Legal Resources
Public Comment
News & Publications
OCBA News
COVID-19 Updates
OC Lawyer Magazine
Featured Articles
Cover Story
Presidents Page
A Criminal Waste Of Space
Ethically Speaking
Millar's Jurisdiction
Other Columns
Digital Edition
Submissions
Article Index
Featured Articles
OCBA eNews
Press Releases
Classified Ads
Find An Expert Witness
Advertising
About
Mission Statement
Vision Statement
OCBA By-Laws
OCBA Officers and Board of Directors
Affiliate Bar Associations
ABTL-Orange County
Celtic Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
Hispanic Bar Association
Iranian American Bar Association
Italian American Lawyers of Orange County
J. Reuben Clark Law Society
Orange County Asian American Bar Association
Orange County Criminal Defense Bar Association
Orange County Jewish Bar Association
Orange County Korean American Bar Association
Orange County Lavender Bar Association
Orange County Trial Lawyers Association
Orange County Women Lawyers Association
Thurgood Marshall Bar Association
History
History Podcast
OCBA Presidents
Franklin G. West Award
Harmon G. Scoville Award
Lei Lei Wang Ekvall Award
Centennial - We've Only Just Begun!
Centennial - Reaching Toward the New Millennium
Centennial - Building Buildings
Centennial - The First 70 Years
Centennial - From Frontierland to Tomorrowland
Centennial - A Maelstrom
Centennial - The More We Change
Centennial - Cases Courts
Centennial - Roaring 20s
Centennial - Introduction
Centennial - The Birth of a Bar
Centennial - The Second Decade
Strategic Plan 2020-2024
Contact Us
Need A Lawyer?
All News
News View
News
Moves & Rearrangements
Awards & Accolades
COVID-19 Update
COVID-19 Task Force Members
Your browser does not support inline frames. You may view the embedded docucument in a new browser window by clicking the following link:
http://www.ocbar.org/forms/facebook.asp?article=1538
June 2015 - Millar’s Jurisdiction: Extra Sensory Perception
Extra Sensory Perception
Robert Frost, who penned Mending Wall a hundred years ago, famously observed that “good fences make good neighbors.” While this was not an original thought, it may be the most eloquent expression—although Benjamin Franklin is attributed as saying “love your neighbor, yet don’t pull down your hedge.”
At any rate, I have it on good authority (and not my own recollection) that throughout history neighbors have been a problem. And, one not solved by fences or hedges, or even walls or parapets. Good neighbors come and go, while bad neighbors stay put forever.
And sometimes they sue. In pro per.
That has to be the trifecta from Hell: (1) being sued (2) by your neighbor (3) in pro per. As always, a case in point.
Like most stories, this one starts out well but, as you know, a good beginning does not insure a good ending.
In 2008, Arthur Firstenberg placed an ad on Craigslist for a personal cook. Raphaela Monribot responded. He hired her to cook his meals, which he ate in her house in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This lasted about a month, and then Ms. Monribot went to Europe for four months. While she was gone, she sublet her house to Mr. Firstenberg, who later bought it.
About a year later (which would be the end of the good beginning), she returned to Santa Fe and rented a house next door to the formerly hungry Mr. Firstenberg. (I am sure she has been kicking herself around the block for that decision, but I digress.) According to Mr. Firstenberg, the very day after she moved in, he “became so ill that he thought he ‘could die.’” Melding propinquity and timeliness, he concluded, as would anyone under the circumstances, that the hapless Ms. Monribot was the cause of his illness.
Well, it wasn’t actually she, herself; it was what she did in her house. I know you will share my outrage when I report that she—are you ready—used her cell phone, her computer, her Wi-Fi, and to add insult to injury, her dimmer switches. Not that most of us would have dimmer switches outside, but all of this was inside her house.
Mr. Firstenberg did what every red-blooded American would do when faced with a neighbor using dimmer switches inside her house. He sued for injunctive relief and monetary damages under “theories of nuisance and prima facie tort,” whatever that is. His damage claim was a carefully selected 1.43 million buckaroos. That should be enough to make anybody turn up their lights.
Mr. Firstenberg, it seems, suffers from self-diagnosed, and medically unrecognized, electromagnetic sensitivity (EMS) which, according to him, is caused by radiation from Ms. Monribot’s devices “‘entering’ and ‘leak[ing]’ into his house.” Because of this, he was unable to use his house for more than a few minutes at a time without suffering from EMS symptoms.
Reportedly, Mr. Firstenberg was well known to the denizens of Santa Fe, if not to Ms. Monribot, as he had previously fought the installation of Wi-Fi in various Santa Fe public buildings.
If you thought that he was nuts and that his lawsuit would be dismissed immediately, you would be only half right. His request for a preliminary injunction was denied as he was unlikely to prevail, but his suit lingered on with a second and third amended complaint and numerous pretrial hearings.
He had “experts”: a treating holistic physician, and a neurotoxicologist. She had a psychologist who said that his symptoms were psychological and “caused by an undifferentiated somatoform disorder, the latter of which (somatoform, not disorder) I had to look up. I am still not sure what it means, but I’m going with it.
Both of his experts were ruled unqualified to testify and summary judgment was entered against him.
Despite having no lawyer and no expert that could even meet the threshold of being able to testify, he appealed. Pro per cases have their own life spans.
In March 2015, over five years since the filing of his complaint, the New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed.
I am now worried about our own courthouse . . . with all that e-filing leaking into the courtrooms.
Richard W. Millar, Jr.
is a member of the firm of Millar, Hodges & Bemis in Newport Beach. He can be reached at
millar@mhblaw.net
.
Return