A Manhattan judge won’t force a chain-smoking trust fund transsexual to stop puffing away in her apartment — but she does have to be more considerate of the neighbors in her tony Upper West Side building.
Diane Wells must install two air purifiers in her smoke-filled four-bedroom apartment in the El Dorado on Central Park West, and she must let workers repair a massive hole in her wall that sends smoke into her neighbors’ homes, the judge said at a hearing yesterday.
It’s clear that Wells was the source of the odors and “has failed to remedy the condition,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern said.
One of the complaining neighbors, Natalie Elsberg, told the judge the fumes have made the apartment she shares with her husband and three young kids unliveable.
“Your honor, please help us,” Elsberg pleaded. “It’s awful. The smell of smoke is very thick, and you can see it, as almost a cloud.”
In order to help her “defenseless kids” breathe, they’ve had to run air purifiers, the air conditioners and open the windows.
Wells was not at the hearing.