Court awards $100,000 to Alabama woman who spent 63 days trapped in a storage locker

Jet, Oct 20, 2003

A jury has awarded $100,000 to an Alabama woman who spent over two months trapped in a storage facility after she was locked in her rented storage unit.

Wanda Hudson, 44, had originally sought $10 million from Parkway Storage in her lawsuit, claiming negligence on the part of the company that rented her a unit in early October 2001.

Hudson testified in Mobile County Circuit Court that creditors had foreclosed on her home and tossed her possessions into the street, forcing her to rent an enclosure measuring 30 feet by 10 feet from Parkway. She paid a month's rent, then moved her furniture and other belongings inside, her attorney Mallory Mantiply said.

On Nov. 7, 2001, while on a security check, the facility's manager found Hudson's storage unit unlocked and partially open, and locked it, Mantiply said.

When she realized she was locked inside, Hudson testified, "It was just total panic. I tried to breathe. I had to believe I was not stuck inside."

Two months later, on Jan. 9, 2002, a customer using a nearby unit heard sounds coming from unit 611. It was Hudson, who apparently had survived on juice and canned foods, but lost 65 pounds while in the unit. Hudson weighed 85 pounds when she was admitted to the hospital, according to medical records.

Her condition when discovered in the unit was of "advanced starvation, unusual to find in medical circumstances in America today," said Dr. William Asher, who studied her case at the hospital.

Hudson was vague about why she was in the storage unit so late on Nov. 7, and denied she heard the metal door close. Parkway's attorney, Burt Taylor, suggested she was sleeping and, furthermore, that she had been living in the unit. She denied Taylor's supposition.

The company argued that during those two months that Hudson claims to have been locked in the unit, customers renting nearby units never heard her trying to get help.

Hudson testified that wasn't because she didn't yell out. She claimed that more than one person heard her screams but did not respond.

Jurors later yielded a $100,000 verdict in favor of Hudson.