“The varieties of traumatizing events that could occur on a property are endless,” wrote Justice J. Michael Eakin in the court’s July 21 opinion. “Efforts to define those that would warrant mandatory disclosure would be a Sisyphean task...What if the killings were elsewhere, but the sadistic serial killer lived there? What if satanic rituals were performed in the house?”
The ruling was in response to a suit filed by a Delaware County woman who had claimed the McMansion she bought in Thornton had an undisclosed “material defect,” because the seller had not told her that at a murder/suicide had been committed in the home.
The ruling dismissed the woman’s argument that the home’s history resulted in a reduction in its value.The court also noted the 2006 tragedy had been well-publicized, news that could have been discovered easily in print or online.