DVA

Like Shel Silverstein’s proverbial Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, the petitioner in this case, Robert S. Cunningham, would not take the garbage out. So, reminiscent of Sarah’s daddy who, in the famous poem would scream and shout, Cunningham’s homeowners association did the modem equivalent. It instituted litigation. The association’s theory in essence was that Cunningham’s property constituted a fire hazard. Local fire authorities, however, determined that his property posed no fire hazard, either indoors or outdoors. Even so, the lawyers for the homeowners association wrote letters demanding that he clear his bed of all papers and books, discard “outdated” clothing, and remove the papers, cardboard boxes and books from the floor area around his bed and dresser. Books that were “considered standard reading material” could, however, remain in place.

Cunningham is a senior citizen who suffers from Hodgkin’s disease. The letter from the association’s lawyers was, in essence, a demand backed up by threat of litigation telling him to straighten up his own bedroom. So Cunningham found a lawyer and sued the association by filing a cross-complaint for invasion of the right to…