GOLDEN - Colorado smokers grousing about no longer being able to light up in bars should consider the plight of a couple banned by a judge from smoking in their own home. Colleen and Rodger Sauve earlier this month lost a court battle to overturn a Heritage Hills #1 Condominium Homeowners Association rule that targeted their cigarette use because the smell of burning tobacco drifted into other condos in the four-unit complex where Colleen has lived, and smoked, for more than five years. "I don't understand how you get to change the rules in the middle of the game," Colleen Sauve said Thursday. "There has to be a limit to a homeowners association's authority, especially when this (smoking) is a lawful act."
The legal battle began after the condo association responded to a complaint from the Sauve's next- door neighbor, Penelope Boyd, about the smoke and odor she said was coming from the Sauves' condo. Boyd's daughter, Christine Shedron, said the problem is not just the smell, but her mother's sensitivity to it. "It makes her nauseated; it makes her sick," Shedron said. "The thing about this is that this is not just my mom against these people. There have been complaints from every person that has lived in that complex with the exception of one or two."