#38 It’s Too Late For That
A guy moved out of his apartment, turned in his keys, then came back 15 days later demanding access so that he could retrieve belongings that he had left behind, which at that point had been trashed. It was just some minor furniture-type items and a box of his college notebooks (i.e. notes he took during class). He was furious and sued the landlord in small claims for $5,000 (the state maximum) because his notebooks had such huge value, apparently.
They hired me and I responded, which moved the case out of small claims (it’s just the way it works here). This put him at a huge disadvantage because now he couldn’t rely on the lax rules of small claims. He went out and hired a lawyer. The lawyer called me to try to talk settlement—I know her pretty well, so I wasn’t rude or anything, but I kind of scoffed and was like no, that won’t be happening.
I directed her attention to a particular state statute, then read it out loud to her. This statute, unlike everything else in the law, isn’t overly long or wordy or hard to follow, it just says bluntly that when someone actually moves out and gives notice of this, items left after 10 days are abandoned, end of the story. I could feel her deflate on the phone and encouraged her to dismiss the suit. She did not, so we proceeded to a short bench trial in the district court that we won.
Credit: justsomeguynbd
