Out of Grand Haven, Michigan, a 42 year old man named David Werking has filed a lawsuit against his parents for throwing away and essentially getting rid of his porn collection that is estimated to be worth $29,000. Werking ended up winning his lawsuit after U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney ruled in his favor saying that there is "no question that the destroyed property was David's property. Defendants repeatedly admitted that they destroyed the property." As a result of this ruling, Werking can legally seek compensation.
This all started back in 2016 when Werking moved in with his parents after his divorce. After 10 months, Werking was asked to leave at the request of law enforcement (so clearly he and his parents butted heads). Then in 2017 Werking asked his parents to send him his belonging and he noticed that his porn collection was missing, thus prompting the whole argument and eventual lawsuit. According to reports when Werking asked his father about getting rid of his porn collection the father responded via email saying: "Frankly, David, I did you a big favor getting rid of all this stuff."
Multiple outlets have reported on this Michigan case and according to the New York Post and the court papers that were filed, Werking's parents described some of his porn items as: "worst of the worst" and kept them in a safety deposit box because they feared they might be illegal...
Does this ruling surprise you? It's certainly attention grabbing when you have a headline that says a 40 year old man won a lawsuit against his parents for destroying his porn collection...mind you it gets juicy after you find out he recently got divorced, thus why he was living at his parent's house with his porn collection (hmmm divorced you say, I don't get it...). I'm not the legal expert but I find it wildly fascinating that here you have a guest in someone else's house who was legally asked to leave by law enforcement (again what a catch, I can't imagine why he got divorced) who left their X-rated material behind and the owners threw it away for why...(Oh, I think we can guess) and now the man is compensated! Unreal. It is indeed his property whether we find it disgusting or not and it is worth something, apparently $29k, and his parents did leave him at a loss so they are to be held accountable. It sucks though, this is what they get for trying to be good parents, taking him in, and then he leaves his porn collection around at your house and you don't like it and so throw it away and get screwed over. Man, I wouldn't want to me that guy's parents...This case actually should scare parents everywhere because how many of us have had our parents throw away some of our old stuff that we left at our childhood home? If you were pissed off enough, maybe you could sue them and win...however there is an argument to be made that your parents could turn around and say they bought that for you as a minor therefore they are the financial owners and they are not "destroying your property". Unless you have proof that as an adult you made all these purchases during a time you were a resident at their home, then they turned around and threw it out, you might have a winning case on your hands. That's my breakdown of it. What do you make of this case?
-Producer Lightning