Medizone Intl. (fka MZEIQ)

[goforthebet]

gm all and semper, here the important parts of your article:

...He says a likely factor is the increased publicity, such as a widely reported $20 million lawsuit filed against a hotel in the Catskills. ..

..Last year an Australian study estimated that bedbugs cost the Australian tourism industry $75 million annually. (No such estimates are available for the U.S.)..

To avoid the hassle of a lawsuit, many property owners prefer to settle bedbug claims out of court. Although settlements are typically maintained under a confidentiality agreement, attorneys say the average bedbug settlement is much less than the ones that make headlines, such as the reported $150,000 that Helmsley Enterprises paid a guest in 2004. But the mental anguish bedbugs inspire can also lead victims to seek claims well above the cost of replacing a suitcase or paying a doctor's bill. "If I'm trying to settle a case, I might be offering $8,000, $10,000, and the person wants millions," says Christian Hardigree, a lawyer and professor of hospitality law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "They feel violated."

..Hardigree says some hotels she has consulted for have spent more than $50,000 to $60,000 to treat full-blown bedbug infestations..

...In a 2003 case, a Chicago jury awarded $382,000 in punitive and compensatory damages to two plaintiffs bitten by bedbugs in a motel room that they alleged management knew was infested but failed to treat. In 2004 a New York judge awarded a tenant a 45% rent abatement for a six-month period, ruling that the apartment's bedbug infestation constituted an "intolerable condition," notwithstanding the landlord's efforts to exterminate them`...