Time to pull out the "pocket demon". A handy, dandy excuse to avoid responsibilities.
At the risk of being redundant... I saw this on fox. Sorry if it's a re-post.
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| Sushi Spooks Spur Suit |
| Monday, September 12, 2005 |
Long after their mortal forms left this Earth, the ghosts of dead prostitutes may be dragged into a Florida court.
The owners of Church Street Station an entertainment complex in downtown Orlando, are suing a sushi restaurant that broke its lease after claiming its space was haunted.
"It's very serious," Lynn Franklin, attorney for Christopher and Yoko Chung, owners of Amura Japanese Restaurant ), told The Associated Press. "A lot of people are corroborating having seen incidents in this location."
Church Street Station owners, who include boy-band mogul Lou Pearlman , offered to perform an exorcism before the restaurant moved in, but were rebuffed.
"As a Jehovah's Witness, Mr. Chung has deeply held beliefs regarding spirits and demons," wrote Franklin in a letter to building owners, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "These beliefs require him to avoid encountering or having any association with spirits or demons" — or with exorcism rites, Franklin later explained to the AP.
Church Street Station says it doesn't really matter if the building is haunted or not.
"I asked them if these were good ghosts or bad ghosts, and if they were good ghosts, why it was a problem," said David Simmons, a lawyer and state lawmaker who represents the company.
Emilio San Martin, who runs Orlando Ghost Tours , said the building at 125 Church St. once housed the Strand Hotel, which was in fact a brothel.
"The ladies there entertained many a gentleman of wealth," San Martin explained, adding that he himself had in the past heard the crying of the prostitutes' murdered illegitimate children.
Workmen conducting renovations last fall saw a bartender and two dancing girls reflected in a mirror, a subcontractor recently told the Sentinel. San Martin said a slender man playing a piano could often be seen and heard when the space housed Lili Marleen's Aviator Pub & Restaurant, which closed a few years ago.
Church Street Station wants $2.6 million from the Chungs to make up for 10 years of rent and theoretical damages. It also wants a judgment on whether there really are ghosts in the building, and if so, whether they would interfere with the operation of a restaurant.
"There is no evidence," says the lawsuit, "that there are ghosts or apparitions in the premises or, if there are, that the ghosts or apparitions interfere with the defendants' quiet enjoyment and use of the premises."
To be fair, both sides may be being a bit disingenuous in claiming prior ignorance of the spectral situation.
San Martin told the Sentinel that until the property changed hands in 2001, he regularly took tour groups through the building. He still begins each day's Orlando Ghost Tour on the sidewalk out in front — in plain view of the Chungs' current restaurant, which sits across the street.