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.
The picture on the front page of today's paper shows a heavy set black lady with extremely long finger nails.
Anyone we know?
Not putting Bess on an emergency diet?
So9
What are the chances of that?
Something is very fishy here.
Excellent question. And unless the entire storage lot was completely shut down, I think the answer would most likely be "no."
Darned lucky, [wink] wasn't she?
But obviously the juice and canned foods did not provide her with enough energy to alert the facility manager during another of his "routine security checks."
Just damn.
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The most extreme use of the "blame the victim" defense strategy ever! This woman will end up owning that storage facility and its operators.
A good friend of mine was locked in a port-a-potty for about an hour. They were about to load it onto the back of a truck when they heard her.
I don't believe this. Only pictures will convince me otherwise.
What are the chances of that?
Something is very fishy here.
Had I not once spent a very hot Houston day helping a Mormon friend of mine move his food supply from a storage facility to a new house, I would have agreed with you.
Any idea how much space a year's supply of food for a family of 8 takes up? (Answer: a lot, and it's very heavy, too....)
Actually, though, there's an easy, non-LDS explanation. The article says she moved all of her stuff into the unit after being evicted from her other place -- which probably included some food.
Beyond that, I'm guessing that she actually lived in the unit -- a nice, low-rent situation, and it explains why the guard found the door open.
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