By 1990 rumors about the old house had already been spreading for years.

Local children whispered of poltergeist, of phantom voices wafting from empty rooms.

The residents claimed that spirits shook the beds,

and a man had even appeared hovering midair in the living room.

Yes, just about everyone in the town of Nyack, New York knew the place was haunted.

Everyone that is, except for Jeffrey Strambofsky.

Which was too bad because Jeffrey was the one person who really should have been informed. You see he was the one who was

buying it. By the time he learned about the house's otherworldly inhabitants, it was too late.

Jeffrey had already put down a 32 and a half thousand dollar deposit and

signed a contract but that didn't stop him from trying to get out of the deal.

He wasn't spooked by the ghosts mind you. He was more afraid that the rumors would

plummet the property value. But a contract is a contract, and so when he tried to break it,

the sellers took him to court. What followed was a trial that would go down in history. In the end,

Strambowski versus Ackley, later known as the Ghostbuster ruling, ended up changing

real estate law forever. The verdict that sellers were legally required to

disclose a house's haunted reputation before selling. And it's from this case

that we get one of the greatest soundbites ever uttered in a courtroom.

As a matter of law, the justices announced in closing, the house is haunted.

Ultimately, it didn't matter whether the house was really haunted or not.

The belief that it was had been enough.

And belief, as you know, can often behave like poison,

because sometimes a little, it goes a very long way.

...