Posted on 09/26/2003 11:14:13 AM PDT by blam
Woman sues DIP storage facility over bizarre ordeal
09/26/03
By GARY McELROY
Staff Reporter
Wanda Hudson missed Thanksgiving and Christmas 2001 because she was locked in a Dauphin Island Parkway storage unit, Hudson's attorney said Thursday.
In fact, Hudson was padlocked in the unit for 63 days, attorney Mallory Mantiply told a Mobile County Circuit Court civil jury.
Hudson, 44, is a short, plump woman -- sporting fingernails several inches long that curl back into her palms -- but on Jan. 9, 2002, she weighed 85 pounds and was near death, a nurse told jurors.
She is suing the company, Parkway Storage on Dauphin Island Parkway (DIP).
Mantiply told jurors in an opening statement that the bizarre case began in early October 2001 when his client rented a unit from Parkway Storage. Creditors had foreclosed on her home and tossed her possessions into the street, he said.
The facility, containing 456 units with more than 60,000 square feet of storage space spread out over five acres, is located about two miles from her former home, the attorney said.
She rented unit number 611, a 30 feet by 10 feet enclosure, paid a month's rent, then moved her furniture and other belongings inside.
A month later, on Nov. 7, 2001, Mantiply told jurors, Hudson paid another month's rent. And on that very night, while on a routine security check, the facility's manager found Hudson's storage unit unlocked and partially open.
He closed and locked it.
And that was apparently the last anyone saw of Hudson for more than two months.
On Jan. 9, 2002, a customer using a nearby unit heard sounds coming from unit 611.
Mantiply told jurors he expected witnesses to testify that the smell was so overwhelming when the doors were opened that firemen were obliged to use gas masks when they entered.
Later in court on Thursday, Gloria Turner, a former nurse with Providence Hospital, testified that when Hudson was brought into the emergency room she weighed 85 pounds.
"The first indication I had that something was going on was the smell," Turner told jurors. Hudson had apparently been moved into a decontamination unit.
"The odor wafted out of that room and through the emergency room," Turner said.
Hudson's skin sagged on her limbs, Turner said.
She apparently had survived on juice and canned foods, her attorney had said earlier.
Turner said, "She was asking God why he allowed this to happen to her. She was crying almost constantly. .. She was crying, praying, talking, she would go to sleep, wake up, it was a continual process."
Frostbite appeared to have gnawed at Hudson's feet, Turner said. There were areas on her elbows and a thigh that looked like bed sores, caused by not moving for long periods of time, the nurse testified.
Hudson wanted to know what day it was, Turner said, and began crying anew when she realized she had missed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Dr. William Asher, called by the plaintiff's side, told jurors he studied Hudson's case after her time in the hospital.
Her condition when discovered in the unit, Asher said, was of "advanced starvation, unusual to find in medical circumstances in America today."
Defense attorney Bert Taylor on Thursday did not dispute that Hudson had spent more than two months in the storage unit. But did she ever make an effort to be found, yell out, bang on the metal door, scream to make her plight known when anyone came near?
He told jurors to expect testimony from another customer at the facility, who stored books in a unit two doors down who was there nearly "every single day" of Hudson's ordeal, and never heard a thing.
"There was no yelling, no screaming, no beating on the doors, no nothing," Taylor said. "No one knew she was in there."
And as for why she was in there, he said, "I don't know."
He asked jurors to consider whether his client, Parkway Storage, and its personnel, did anything unreasonable under the circumstances of Hudson's bizarre silence.
"Yes, she was locked in there," Taylor said. "But why she was there, and what efforts she made to get out, we'll let her tell you."
The trial was to continue this morning before Circuit Judge Rick Stout.
I'll believe that the yahoo may have disappeared for a while, but I doubt she was locked in that storage space for over two months.
She apparently had survived on juice and canned foods, her attorney had said earlier.
I trust there are scores of empty cans and juice bottles littering the room. She didn't let a squawk for over two months, just sat in there with her furniture and a large enough supply of liquids to keep her alive for over two months? Then this lawyer, 21 months later, smells a lawsuit....
Not if the woman was violating the terms of her contract with the storage facility. Clearly, she was living in the storage unit that she was renting, and I don't believe that particular use of the storage unit is permitted under most storage facility rental contracts.
sporting fingernails several inches long that curl back into her palms
I really, really needed to know this!
Besides fingernails only grow a little bit per month. She must have already had claws to start with.
No private entity has the right to imprison anyone, regardless of any contract violation.
Clearly, she was living in the storage unit that she was renting,
Unless you have some personal connection to this case other than this short article your assertion is completely unfounded. Neither of us knows the facts of this case and we are both completely unqualified to make such a rash statement. Please don't be so quick to pass judgment without the facts, you may be asked to be on a jury someday and rushing to such unsubstantiated conclusions could end up compromising an otherwise sound verdict.
Look for the cost of storage units to rise everywhere. Also sing out when you see the first warning label appear on the doors of units.
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