RE “WOMAN loses second-hand smoke case: Said real estate broker misled her about neighbor’’ (Metro, Feb. 17): I am writing in regard to the case of the condo owner who lost her suit over second-hand smoke making her asthma worse. When my husband and I were looking at a house in Lexington, I kept telling the realtor that I smelled smoke. He assured me it was coming from a gentleman who had just left who had the smell of smoke on his coat. We went from room to room, and when we reached the kitchen, I almost fell over. The owner (who is usually not present at a showing) was sitting at her table smoking a cigarette. The realtor must have known that his client was there, but chose to bend the truth, as it were. My husband and I quickly left, laughing our heads off.
The defendant should have gone with her hunch about the smoke she detected, checked the surrounding condos for resident smokers, and then made her decision to buy based on real fact, not the fiction she said the realtor was feeding her. I am surprised she spent nearly two years compromising her health the way she did.
Ruth Minden
Belmont 
