Son wins $40,000 payout after parents destroyed extensive porn collection

A man who sued his parents for getting rid of his pornography collection has won a lawsuit in western Michigan and can seek compensation. Photo / Getty

A man who sued his parents for getting rid of his pornography collection has won a lawsuit in western Michigan and can seek compensation.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney ruled in favour of David Werking, who said his parents had no right to throw out his collection. He lived at their Grand Haven home for 10 months after a divorce before moving to Muncie, Indiana.

Werking said boxes of films and magazines worth an estimated $29,000 (NZ$40,0000) were missing.

"Getting to the heart of the coconut now, the legal issue before the court is whether Paul and Beth converted David's pornography 'to their own use,'" Maloney wrote earlier.

Emails between Werking and his father stated that the items included 12 full boxes of "pornography plus two boxes of sex toys", according to the Sentinel.

Werking said there were over 1,600 DVDs and tapes.

In one email, Werking's father told him he did him a "big favour by getting rid of all this stuff".

"There is no question that the destroyed property was David's property," Maloney said Monday.

"Defendants repeatedly admitted that they destroyed the property."

Werking's parents said they had a right to act as his landlords.

"Defendants do not cite to any statute or caselaw to support their assertion that landlords can destroy property that they dislike," the judge said.

Maloney told both sides to file briefs on the financial value of the collection.

"The court does not intend to hold an evidentiary hearing," he said.