Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Georgia

I was storing my belongs at a friends house. she got mad and threw all my things , my kids belongs away. is there anyway to make her pay for what she got rid of? She never said come get it and infact our last conversation she said i could use her storage. What can I do because all my childrens things are gone, our furniture, pictures clothing . Please advise....


Asked on 8/08/10, 8:49 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys

Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

You have three choices:

1. You can sue her for the used value of the items, which likely will be a very small number.

2. You possibly can have her arrested for theft (if a court will let you, and they probably will not).

3. You can skip 1 and 2 because they are a lot of work for very few dollars and get better friends.

Read more
Answered on 8/13/10, 8:58 pm

Have to agree here - you are going to have a hard time proving what you had and its value unless you happen to have pictures. The furniture was used - what value would you assign to it? Did you have an agreement to pay your friend for the storage? What she did was wrong, but you leave out many details. What happened to cause her to get angry at you?

I would not go farther than small claims' court. This is really not a criminal matter so I would not bother the police. It was not really a theft - its called conversion and is a civil tort.

Other than that, don't do this in the future. Pay for storage and do not impose on friends if you want the friendship to last. Again, what she did was wrong, but she is not running a storage facility either.

Read more
Answered on 8/14/10, 12:14 pm
Ralph Villani VILLANI LAW FIRM

Make a list (and gather evidence of cost of same) of all the items you stored - having a third party witness will help. If the true value of the property she tossed is under $15,000.00, go to magistrate court (a/k/a small claims court) and file a pro se lawsuit against her (the clerk may assist you, albeit, they are not allowed to give legal advice) and then have a bench trial (bring all of your proof and witnesses to trial if you want any chance of winning case). If over $15,000.00 and you can prove it to a jury, hire a lawyre and sue her in State or Superior Court (in any court you can ask for punitive damages s - for her intentional tort of "theft by conversion" and/or criminal destruction of your property, to name a couple of legal claims other than actual costs)

Read more
Answered on 8/15/10, 9:47 am


Related Questions & Answers

More General Civil Litigation questions and answers in Georgia