Wartime worker in fight of her life

Lawsuit calls widow's caregivers `occupants'

Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Joe Kollin

Published April 4, 2007

 

Rose Normoyle worked as a real-life Rosie the Riveter in an aircraft factory during World War II, building the planes that helped America preserve freedom.

Now, she's fighting her condo board so she can maintain her own freedom.

At 85, her memory is failing, she is confined to a wheelchair and she must have 24-hour care. But Normoyle, a widow, doesn't want to move into a nursing home. Instead, she wants to remain in the apartment at Lakewood on the Green I, in Margate, that she bought in 1988 after moving from Long Island.

With no children and living only on Social Security -- she gets no pension from her jobs assembling aircraft between 1941 and 1982 -- she can't afford caretakers. Her closest friend, retired New York City firefighter Louis D'Agostino, 69, of Coconut Creek, is paying two people to watch over her around the clock. He is half owner of the apartment.

But the board considers the caretakers to be "unauthorized and-or transient occupants" and on Feb. 8 filed a lawsuit alleging their presence in the apartment violates association rules.

"Is this the way we want to treat a member of the `greatest generation?'" asks F. Blane Carneal, the Fort Lauderdale attorney defending Normoyle and D'Agostino.

D'Agostino pays all Normoyle's bills and expects to be reimbursed when he sells the apartment after she passes on.

"I've known her 10 years. I promised her that I would take care of her and being Italian, a promise is a promise," he says.

Part of that promise was making sure she could stay in the apartment, which is filled with mementos of her years at Republic Aviation and Grumman Aircraft.

They include a framed version of the famous Rosie the Riveter poster, models of airplanes she helped build, a red light that goes on the wingtip of the F-84 fighter, the tool box made for her by her husband of 32 years, Edwin, who died in 1982, and a certificate of appreciation for working on the Project Apollo team that built the lunar lander and put men on the moon for the first time in 1969.

"They were wonderful people to work for," she says.

During her entire 41 years working on aircraft, she was known as Rosie the Riveter, even though she isn't believed to be one of the models used in the famous J. Howard Miller picture of the woman with her arm clenched and a bandana on her head.

Her daytime caregiver is Arleen Forrester, of Lauderdale Lakes, who has cared for residents at Lakewood for 11 years. Her cousin, Allan Forrester, of Lauderdale Lakes, is the nighttime caregiver.

In December, the association began demanding Normoyle and D'Agostino either get rid of the caretakers or get association approval of them.

"Specifically, you are to immediately cease and desist from permitting unauthorized and-or transient occupants from residing in the unit," Fort Lauderdale attorney Rachel E. Frydman wrote to the owners on Dec. 6.

The letter stated Article 22 of the condominium documents requires association approval of all occupants.

Article 22 refers to "Sale, Rental, Lease or Transfer" of units. The lawsuit contends Normoyle and D'Agostino didn't get association approval "prior to leasing [the] unit" and "failed to provide [the] association with a copy of the lease agreement."

Carneal argues that Normoyle and D'Agostino aren't leasing the unit; the Forresters are simply hired to work there.

Further, he says, Lakewood doesn't have a rule requiring approval of caretakers.

Broward County Judge Catalina M. Avalos will set a trial date later.

Association President Steven Rosenberg couldn't be reached for comment and Vice President Gregory Markoski declined to discuss the issue.


Q&A

Many of you are concerned with shutters and impact windows. For answers we turned to Roberto Blanch, an attorney with Siegfried, Rivera, Lerner, De La Torre & Sobel, a law firm in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami. Its specialties include condo and homeowner law.

Here is one question and an answer. For more, see www.sun-sentinel.com/condos.

Q. A Boca Raton condo owner says many owners installed shutters to protect their windows during the last hurricanes. Now, the board wants to assess everyone to pay for windows damaged in apartments where owners didn't install them. "This to me is very unfair," the reader writes, asking if it legal for a board to make everyone pay because a few didn't have the foresight to protect their property.

A. Yes, the board can make everyone pay, Blanch says. State condo law considers windows part of the condominium property that must be insured by the association. Unfortunately, due to the very high deductibles on windstorm policies for most condos, the cost to repair or replace windows damaged as a result of a hurricane falls below the amount of the deductible. Since the cost of the deductibles is considered a common expense, all owners are expected to pay their proportionate share of the cost to repair or replace windows damaged as a result of a hurricane.


THE ASSOCIATION ATTORNEY IS:

Rachel Ellen Frydman

Katzman & Korr, Pa
Fort Lauderdale Florida 33309

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