Dead Body in Hotel Water Tank
ROMANS: We're expecting an autopsy today on the young Canadian woman who's body turned up in a water tank on the roof of a Los Angeles hotel. Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel last month. She was last seen alive on the 31st. On Tuesday police found her here and the mystery deepened. Along with concerns for the hotel's other guests, guests who drank and bathed in water from the tank. The water tank there where her body was decomposing for who knows how long. Listen to what a former guest told CNN.</s>SABINA BAUGH, HOTEL GUEST: The water did have a funny taste.</s>MICHAEL BAUGH, HOTEL GUESTS: It wasn't right.</s>BAUGH: There was something wrong. The pressure in the water was terrible, the shower was awful. The water -- and when you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first.</s>ROMANS: OK, the hotel isn't commenting, but Sabina, the young woman you just heard from, says it's not offering refunds to guests who leave early, and is asking guests who stayed to sign a waiver affirming they've been warned about the water. And that brings me to my lawyers, Jeff and Joey. Joey, you first. The Cecil Hotel is a lot closer to Skid Row than Rodeo Drive. But still, drink at your own peril and risk?</s>JACKSON: Outrageous. I think ultimately there are two issues here. One is of course contractual. When you go to a hotel you expect a certain standard of care there. You expect that they're going to tend to you and that the water quality and everything else will be legit. And you can't force people to sign contracts, you can, but whether those contracts are valid or not is another matter. It's a contract of adhesion. It means that either you stay or you go, and ultimately they're directing you to do so. And so I think that's a problem. The other problem quickly is a civil issue. That is, people could be damaged. I mean, I don't know if people got sick. They're going to do tests on the water and then there's the emotional issue of the distress. Could you imagine learning that you were drinking water or bathing in water where there was a decomposing body? That causes some issues.</s>ROMANS: What risk do travelers reasonably assume, Jeff, when they check in to a strange place? What recourse do they have if they've drank tainted water or eaten bad food?</s>TOOBIN: You know -- you know, I went -- I went on the Web this morning and saw that you can get a room at the Cecil Hotel for $46 a night. That's pretty low price, but you don't expect dead body in your water for that -- for that price. I mean, this is obviously an awful situation, and mostly it's awful, obviously, for this poor woman and her family. But, you know, I am not sure this is really a legal -- a civil case. You know, we talk about, like, the Carnival Cruise last week, people are going to sue. You know, unless someone is proved to be injured as a result of this, if some someone is actively sick and can prove that they were caused, this is really mostly -- this is really a tragedy about this woman and her family. And the guests, I mean, I think the hotel is handling it terribly, they should obviously offer people refunds, they should let people go. But, you know, I think it's mostly really about this woman and her family.</s>ROMANS: Yes, I would agree on that.</s>JACKSON: Jeff, I say sue them now and sue them later.</s>TOOBIN: That's why you're in private practice, pal.</s>ROMANS: Thanks, guys. This next one. A form of meditation, stretching and exercise, it's yoga. It's inside one California school district. Why one lawsuit claims this is trampling religious freedom.