Kalamazoo Judge Rules Parents Must Pay For Dumping Son’s Porn

This is a case that just leaves you shaking your head, and it doesn't exactly raise the level of jurisprudence to new heights.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney ruled in Kalamazoo a Grand Haven couple is to pay $45,000 for disposing their son's collection of pornography and sex toys.

MLive reports forty-three year old David Werking sued his parents for $25,000 (and asked the amount be trebled, as in tripled, which is possible under Michigan law) after they dumped his collection of pornography and some sex toys. The defense went so far as to hire an expert in pornography valuation (the woman has a Dr. ahead of her name; they offer a doctorate in that?) who said it was difficult to put an exact value on the collection, given the up and down nature of the marketplace.

The background for this story is, the younger Werking moved in with his parents following a divorce some five years ago, and then asked his parents to ship his belongings to his new address in Indiana when he moved out. The parents allegedly felt they were doing their son a favor by disposing of the materials; the son presenting an email from the father stating essentially that.

Imagine getting to your golden years and finding out you'll be working to pay off a substantial court judgement because you dumped your adult son's pornography collection. Then again, what child hasn't said something about how their mom threw away their baseball card collection. Legally, the principal might be the same. And it does bring up an interesting legal question: does this ruling open up for lawsuits all those moms who threw away their kid's baseball card collection. There's a can of worms?

This whole situation should make for an interesting discussion at the Thanksgiving table.

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