An antique dealer on New York's Madison Avenue, is claiming a million dollars in damages from 4 homeless people. They've been sheltering outside his shop and he wants them stopped from coming any nearer than 100 feet of it. Guto Harri reports from New York:

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The lawsuit, filed this week names them as John Doe, Jane Doe, Bob Doe and John Smith and accuses them of sleeping on the sidewalk, consuming alcohol, urinating and spitting. Karl Kemp says he has nothing against them and would like to see them put up in a shelter twenty blocks away. But he's concerned that customers are being put off by their presence.

Repeated complaints to police have achieved nothing, but an injunction would allow the authorities to move them on. The claim for a million dollars in damages was apparently necessary for technical legal reasons and there's no expectations of that aspect of the action being enforced.

Guto Harri, BBC News, New York

Listen to the words

The contrast could hardly be starker
The differences between the people or things that are being compared could not be clearer, more obvious, more opposite

hunched up
crouched, bent down and forwards so that your back is curved

John Doe
A general name that is used in the US for people whose real names aren't known for various reasons, e.g. an unconscious woman or one who has lost her memory may be called Jane Doe

sidewalk
American English for 'pavement'; a path at the side of a road which people can walk on safely

consuming
drinking or eating

has nothing against them
doesn't see anything wrong with them, has no dislike or hatred for them

put up in
housed, allowed to sleep in

put off
discouraged, don't want to; here, customers don't want to go into the shop because of the homeless people outside it

an injunction
a court order telling someone not to do something

move them on
force them to go to another place