This is not an ordinary case of noise in a condominium. Typically, condo boards have limited recourse with respect to a noisy neighbor. Unlike cooperative housing corporation counterparts which have a landlord-tenant relationship with owners, condominium’s do not. Boards typically leave owner-owner disputes to owners to resolve amongst themselves, but sometimes condo boards have to intervene and the Coleman case was one of those.
Attorney Andrea J. Coleman is an owner in the One Grand Army Plaza Condominium. She is in foreclosure but that is not the issue. For quite some time she has been a nuisance to her neighbors, blasting classical music and shrieking things such as “Obama is a murderer!” and “Rape!” around the clock. It was so bad that the condo had to hire an attorney to sue Ms. Coleman for breach of contract for violating the bylaws, nuisance and injunctive relief. The condo won and when Ms. Coleman failed to stop, they won again obtaining a contempt order from the Court. If Ms. Coleman doesn’t stop she’ll be fined, over and over again.
The trouble is that she is still in possession of the condominium and she is out of money. The contempt order would help if she had money or was worried about having to pay the money so as to curb her conduct. From the looks of it, the condominium must have spent a lot of legal fees for which it may never recover. Most condominium bylaws don’t allow the recovery of legal fees in these situations. Creative lawyering in seeking a contempt order and monetary penalties for noncompliance may help recoup the fees, but as stated, Ms. Coleman is broke and in foreclosure. The good news is that the Courts are willing in extreme cases like this to intervene and help damaged neighbors to the extent that it was in the Court’s power to do so.
