Bed bug lawsuit highlights landlord-tenant power imbalance

Amanda Wells lost a lawsuit against her former landlord in small claims court. She alleged that his rental was infested with bedbugs. “Landlord makes no warranty of habitability,” the lease stated.

A common refrain from those opposed to the city’s new rental regulations is that tenants are already granted protection by state statute. State law dictates tenants’ and landlords’ duties to one another, the argument goes, so additional city-level protections are unnecessary.

But the reality on the ground is messier.

While the text of the law provides for some possibilities, it closes off others, and the economic power imbalance between tenants and landlords further limits what is available to those who find themselves renting a home.

That imbalance was on display May 25 during a small claims hearing in Albany County Circuit Court.

Amanda Wells had rented an apartment from Yuri Dahnovsky in the summer of 2020. She ended up staying less than a day, alleging that she was swarmed by bedbugs on her first night in the apartment.

The hearing lasted more than four hours — an exceptionally long time for a small claims lawsuit. It involved calling and cross-examining four witnesses, as well as introducing a mountain of exhibits.

In the end, the court ruled that Dahnovsky did not have to pay Wells the compensation she was looking for, but it also ruled that Wells did not have to pay the attorney’s fees that Dahnovsky was seeking.

The case might seem unremarkable, given the frequency with which Laramie tenants and landlords find themselves in court. But Wells’ story and the details of her hearing highlight a reality of the city’s rental landscape: that tenants seeking damages from their landlords are at a severe structural disadvantage — whatever the validity of their claims.

‘I woke to extremely painful and itchy, swollen bites’

Amanda Wells is the assistant director of the Laramie Plains Civic Center. In 2020, looking for more space and for a rental close to her place of work, she signed a lease with Yuri Dahnovsky for Apartment D at 407 S. Eighth Street.

Dahnovsky is a University of Wyoming professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He had recently purchased the Eighth Street location and renovated the apartment building there.

Wells said she went to sleep in the apartment for the first and only time one August night, waking up a few hours later to allegedly find “10-20 bugs” crawling over her body and belongings.

“I left the apartment promptly in fear of what was crawling on me,” Wells told the court last month. “The following morning, I woke to extremely painful and itchy, swollen bites covering areas of my body.”

She went to her boyfriend’s residence and stayed there, learning from Google that the pattern and inflammation of the new sores on her body matched the kind of bites left by bed bugs.

She called Dahnovsky the next morning to tell him about the infestation and get out of the lease.

“Mr. Dahnovsky said he would give me my money back if I moved out by 7 p.m. that evening, which I did,” Wells said. “Although Mr. Dahnovsky held up his end of the deal by returning my rent, his interactions with me were extremely unprofessional and verbally abusive, involving yelling and cussing at me, stating that I brought the bedbugs there and that I would have to pay for the exterminator.”

Wells’ bedbug-related difficulties, however, were just beginning.

Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control recognize bedbugs as a public health pest. While the bugs are unlikely to carry disease, they can spread from person to person, their bites cause irritation and itchiness, and they are difficult to get rid of.

Wells told the court how the infestation continued after she moved out. She said she had to trash most of her belongings, including all of her furniture.

“The only things I was able to keep were some clothes and hard objects that I could successfully treat with alcohol and high heat,” she told the court.

Wells said she had to quarantine and missed a week of work. Even as she returned, the bites remaining on her body worried others at the civic center about possible spread. The civic center is a big place and, as LPCC Director Kimberly Mittelstadt testified during the hearing, an infestation there would quickly spread to large segments of the Laramie population.

Wells described the routine she used to disinfect everything she brought to work each day. She treated her clothes with heat and sprayed her shoes with alcohol.

“It is hard to put into words what being infested with bedbugs for months did to my mental health,” Wells said. “I still suffer from PTSD, from the paranoia of being reinfested. I have nightmares of bugs crawling on me to this day. For months after being bedbug free, I would continue having feelings of bugs crawling on me when they were not.”

So, Wells brought Dahnovsky to small claims court, seeking compensation for her lost furniture, savings and time.

Dahnovsky and his attorney, Jo Ann Fulton, argued there was no evidence the bedbugs existed in the apartment before Wells moved in — and further that there was no evidence the bugs found were even specifically bed bugs.

Dahnovsky paid for two exterminations — one for Apartment D and one for Apartment G. Apartment D was the one Wells had stayed in for part of a night. Apartment G was occupied by a tenant who had occupied Apartment D before Wells.

“(Dahnovsky) was trying to get a new property up and running and rented in the most responsible way he knew how to do it,” Fulton told the court during her closing argument. “And when she reported bugs, even though she was the only one who reported bugs, he called an exterminator in the off-chance that she brought in the bugs herself. He acted in the best interests of his property by having an exterminator come in even though there were no indications of bugs in the unit and no indications of bugs in (the other) apartment.”

‘Obviously I don’t have anyone representing me’

Wells was ill-equipped to defend her claim in court.

As the two parties took their seats in the courtroom, Dahnovsky sat beside his lawyer, Jo Ann Fulton, who spoke with him as everyone waited for the judge to arrive.

Wells sat alone at the Plaintiff’s table, preparing to represent herself.

Judge Robert Sanford entered and the hearing began.

As both parties made statements, introduced exhibits, called witnesses and cross-examined each other’s witnesses, Fulton objected each time Wells made a statement when she should have been asking questions, and nearly every time Wells tried to enter a new photo or document.

Wells was upfront about her lack of legal expertise, even as she tried to navigate the hearing.

“Obviously I don’t have anyone representing me and don’t know the law very well,” Wells told the court.

Judge Sanford accepted and answered the various procedural questions Wells asked, reminding her it was completely understandable not to know all the ins and outs of the court.

“I don’t expect anyone to know the court procedures by heart,” he said.

But navigating the complex series of events that make up a court hearing were not the only challenges facing Wells as she attempted to make her case.

Wells was also not prepared to defend against counterclaims about the underlying facts of the case. For example, she did not have documented evidence or witness testimony that her bug bites did not exist before she moved in — a negative that could have been difficult to prove even with legal representation.

Wells also consulted internet resources to identify both the bugs and the treatment she should seek. Fulton objected to the use of Google as a credible source and highlighted how there was no bug expert or exterminator present to offer expert testimony regarding the presence or appearance of bedbugs.

Wells asserted that an exterminator would not have treated both units D and G without confirming their presence in each — but without an exterminator present to speak about their professional practice, Fulton argued that Wells could not personally offer such an argument.

It’s impossible to know what would have happened in the parallel universe where an exterminator spoke to or backed up Wells’ claim, but that seemingly minor detail could have been important.

If an exterminator identified bedbugs in both apartments, it would have meant that the tenant before Wells had probably brought the bugs from unit D to unit G – meaning that the bugs existed in Wells’ apartment long before Wells arrived.

At least, that was Wells’ argument. Dahnovsky, of course, claims that Wells probably brought the bed bugs with her into unit D.

Wells said she did not see bed bugs when she checked out the apartment prior to signing the lease, but that — based on her understanding of bed bugs — she wouldn’t have. Bed bugs are only active at night, Wells said, as they seek out the warmth of your body.

But there was no entomologist in court to back up that claim, either, so Fulton objected again.

The absence of an exterminator or some other expert who could have identified the bedbugs or talked about extermination practices hindered Wells’ ability to lay out her case. It was not the only time Wells’ lack of legal expertise and inability to hire legal representation hurt her case in the hearing.

‘I didn’t seek medication or healthcare because I didn’t have health insurance’

Wells also lacked medical documentation of her infestation, the health effects she suffered, or the medication she took.

Wells had explained earlier in the hearing that she did not seek medical treatment because she was uninsured at the time. But Fulton still highlighted the lack of a professional diagnosis in her closing argument.

“If you are suffering so much — and I’m certainly not suggesting that Ms. Wells hasn’t suffered, I don’t want the court to misunderstand my point here — but if you are suffering to that extent, why wouldn’t you go see a medical professional?” Fulton said. “Why didn’t you have a medical professional look at you and say, ‘Yeah, that’s bed bugs.’”

Seeking out a medical professional to address new sores on your body might be typical for judges, lawyers and university professors with enough extra income to invest in real estate. But it’s far from standard operating procedure for the thousands in Wyoming who lack health insurance.

The state’s uninsured and underinsured population face a different calculus when staring down a new or mystery medical issue: does the risk of dying or sustaining other life-altering consequences outweigh the risk of incurring medical debt?

Often, Wyoming’s poorest try to deal with the situation as best they can without expensive, professional help. Taking that gamble is sometimes deadly.

Wells was able to recover after following the advice she found online regarding how to disinfect yourself, how long to quarantine, and what over-the-counter medication to take.

“The bites were really, really painful, and I didn’t seek medication or healthcare because I didn’t have health insurance, and because all you really have to do is take Benadryl because it’s an allergic reaction,” Wells said. “I didn’t find it necessary to go to the hospital for that. It took a couple of weeks for the inflammation to go away, but the bites were definitely extremely painful and very itchy.”

Fulton also pointed to areas of the law and lease that limited what Wells could recover from Dahnovsky, even if the bedbugs predated Wells’ stay in the apartment. The state statutes explicitly state that landlords cannot be held liable for “mental suffering or anguish” experienced by their tenant. And while those same statutes direct landlords to provide apartments that are “in a safe and sanitary condition fit for human habitation,” they also allow leases to throw out just about every requirement they dictate, including that one.

“Any duty or obligation in this article may be assigned to a different party or modified by explicit written agreement signed by the parties,” states § 1-21-1202(d).

During cross-examination, Fulton made Wells read the line of her lease exempting Dahnovsky from providing an apartment fit for human habitation.

“Landlord makes no warranty of habitability, warranty of fitness, or other warranties as to the condition of the premises,” the lease states.

During closing arguments, Fulton also took aim at Wells’ alleged motive for bringing the lawsuit, saying the young woman was “wrapped up in a break-up.”

“Ms. Wells would like us to believe that she had extreme emotional distress over this,” Fulton said. “And I can appreciate that having bug bites would cause that kind of extreme, emotional distress. However, she had had some kind of a break up with a boyfriend, she was in an emotionally distressed state when she moved out of the boyfriend’s house. So she moves back in with that boyfriend, or finds a reason to move back in with that boyfriend, and then decides, ‘Oh, by the way, I want my money back too.’”

Wells had not said she was going through a break-up. In fact, she stated explicitly that she and her boyfriend at the time were not breaking up when she moved into Dahvosky’s apartment. Wells said they simply wanted more space and that she wanted to be closer to work, but that their relationship persisted.

Wells tried to object to Fulton’s characterization of her relationship, saying it was irrelevant to the case. But she was informed “that is not the type of objection” she could make “at this point in time in the trial.”

Wells is not a lawyer. Nor could she afford one. In bringing her claim against her former landlord, the structural, procedural and financial disadvantages faced by tenants proved to be significant roadblocks — as they have for other tenants seeking their day in court.

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to do all of this — I didn’t for so long because it’s so uncomfortable,” she said. “I apologize for being emotional … ”

“It’s okay to be emotional,” Judge Sanford said.

“It just was a lot, losing everything that I have and starting over,” Wells said. “Just losing so much money, just thousands and thousands of dollars and time, and I had to quarantine myself during the pandemic, and all the uprisings were happening around the country, and getting bitten by things that hurt at the same time — I really wasn’t okay.”

Sanford took a few days to render his decision, telling the parties that there was much to consider in this case. Wells received the verdict Tuesday. She won’t be made to pay Dahnovsky’s legal fees — which would have amounted to well over $1,000 — but she also won’t receive any compensation from Dahnovsky related to the bedbug infestation.