Bedbug Lawsuit

Maryland woman awarded $800k after suing landlord over bedbug infestation that caused her to lose 'practically everything'

• $650,000 of the $800,000 was awarded as punitive damages
• Housing attorneys expect to see a spike in bedbug lawsuits

By Daily Mail Reporter
A Maryland landlord was ordered to pay a former tenant $800,000 after the tenant filed a lawsuit claiming the landlord failed to address a bedbug infestation that caused her to lose 'practically everything.'
The ruling is one of the largest - if not the largest - amounts awarded in this sort of lawsuit, according to housing law experts.
According to the lawsuit, plaintiff Faika Shaaban, 69, suffered hundreds of bites and lesions as a result of the infestation, which she claims the landlord knew about in the summer of 2011, prior to Shaaban's moving into the apartment. 

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Shaaban claims the landlord, Cornelius J. Barrett and West Street Partnership - which owns the property - ignored complaints about the bedbugs from other tenants before she moved in in September of 2011.
Shaaban ultimately was evicted from the apartment, at which point her things were put outside on the curb and were eventually stolen, despite a sign she'd left with her things asking that people not take them.

'She lost practically everything due to this,' her attorney, Daniel Whitney, told the Baltimore Sun.
Of the $800,000 awarded to Shaaban, the majority - $650,000 - was awarded as punitive damages, which are designed to monetarily deter a defendant in a civil case from engaging in similar behavior in the future.

Housing lawyers anticipate a spike in lawsuits against landlords over bedbug infestations

Whitney went on tell the paper that the large amount awarded to Shaaban indicates that juries are sympathetic to tenants in what is becoming a new trend of bedbug lawsuits being filed against landlords; Whitney currently has 75 clients who have filed lawsuits against their landlords over bedbug infestations.
'You are going to see a rapid growth of bedbug claims over the next decade. There are enough lawyers who are getting trained so that people will be able to find lawyers, so that people will find a way to get relief,' Alabama-based attorney Tom Campbell told the paper.
Barrett and West Street Partnership did not respond to the lawsuit, and the property has since gone into foreclosure.
Whitney says the ruling was the jury's 'opportunity to send a message to the community, to landlords, that you must abate it.'