An HBCU student from Benedict College has won almost $700K in a lawsuit against his landlord after the landlord wrongfully threw away his things. Ansel Postell returned to Columbia, South Carolina, in July 2022 to find that his landlord had emptied his prepaid apartment and given away his things. This new settlement amount is incredibly higher than Postell’s original settlement offer of $75,000.
In a report by The State, Potsell’s mother claims they paid the rent for the apartment six months in advance to ensure that his belongings were safe while he was away on summer break. The total amount for the rent came to $3,810. According to Postell, all his clothes, electronic equipment, television, and self-built computers were missing. According to Postell’s court testimony, his self-built computers had a replacement value of over $6,000. He filed a lawsuit against Campus Advantage, also referred to as The Rowan, when the business refused to pay him for the lost property.
After a three-hour deliberation, a Richland County jury awarded the HBCU student $692,000 in damages in the lawsuit. The $692,000 included $230,000 for actual damages and $462,500 in punitive damages, according to the jury form.
“I’m glad I was given the opportunity for this to be taken up in court, and the jury was able to make a decision on the evidence that we provided,” Postell said in an interview with The State newspaper last Friday.
According to Postell’s lawsuit, the Campus Advantage initially acknowledged their mistake, but it rejected Postell and his mother’s requests for his lost belongings. Having to deal with The Rowan’s lack of responsiveness and replacing missing things “required so much of his time that Postell was unable to attend classes at Benedict College for several of the first few days of (the) semester, placing his semester’s performance in jeopardy and also risking several scholarships and benefits for which Postell had previously earned,” his lawsuit said.
Due to Campus Advantage violating South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, Postell will be entitled at least to triple damages of some or all of the $692,000 total award, according to his attorney, Todd Lyle.
“Almost half a million dollars in punitive damages is sending a huge message,” Lyle said. “This case could have been settled for far less, but their obstinance and insistence that they did no wrong ultimately drove this verdict as high as it did,” Lyle said.
Postell graduated manga cum laude from Benedict College back in May. Under the law, the defendants will now have to pay two years of interest at 8% a year, according to the verdict.
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