Declarations

Smoking Wager

“Visitors regularly comment on the smoke and have noted that it ‘smells like a casino’ in the common hallway.”

—Court papers filed by Manhattan lawyer-couple Jonathan and Jenny Needleman Selbin, who are suing their cigarette-smoker neighbor, Galila Huff, in a New York court, claiming the secondhand smoke endangers their 7-year-old son. The Selbins and Huff reside in the Ansonia on the Upper West Side — former home of celebrity Angelina Jolie. The suit seeks to prohibit Huff from allowing her smoke to permeate the common hallway, and to award the couple unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and legal fees.

Parent Trap

“In some cases, parents do more harm than good.”

—Brent Williams, owner of Williams Driving School in Rochester, N.H., on the Granite State’s current system of relying on parents to teach children to drive. Lawmakers in the state are pushing for a revamp of the current driver training laws that would set up the state’s first learner’s permit system, require more training hours for new drivers and further restrict passengers in a teen’s car.

Shred Away

“I really feel like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders.”

—Zainab Chaudhry, of New York, after shredding her deceased father’s tax documents as part of a push by the Empire State’s Consumer Protection Board “free shedding day” in Albany. Chaudhry said she held on to the documents for years, fearing the sensitive information they contained about her family might get into the wrong hands. Several hundred people participated in the mass-shredding — a response positive enough that the agency plans to organize more shredding events in different parts of the state.

Keystone Comp Cut

“Right now, Pennsylvania employers are benefiting from the excellent job they are doing to provide safe workplaces for their employees.”

—Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell after approving a 10 percent average decrease in the Keystone State’s workers’ compensation rates, Rendell’s fourth reduction in five years. The governor credited the frequent reduction to the success of a labor department program that develops safety initiatives at 7,500 businesses in the state, which employ roughly 1 million workers.

Farmers Market

“There was a time when the farm was so small it wouldn’t have mattered.”

—William R. Berkley, founder and CEO of W.R. Berkley Corp., asked whether there was ever a business wager that he would have been willing to “bet the farm on.” The response came during a question and answer period following a speech by Berkley — given at a symposium of Professional Liability Underwriting Society in New York earlier this month — on the importance of evaluating risk.