The Value of a Porn Collection

From an AP report:

A judge has ordered a western Michigan couple to pay $30,441 to their son for getting rid of his pornography collection.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney’s decision this week came eight months after David Werking, 43, won a lawsuit against his parents.

He said they had no right to throw out his collection of films, magazines and other items. Werking had lived at their Grand Haven home for 10 months after a divorce before moving to Muncie, Indiana. 

How was the amount determined? According to a local report:

Maloney said that a defense-hired expert in pornography valuation, Dr. Victoria Hartmann, determined the destroyed collection’s value to be $30,441.54, the amount he ordered the defendants to pay.

Hartmann could not provide a value for 107 titles on the son’s list.

“However, given the wide range of valuations for individual pieces and the inability of Dr. Hartmann to even estimate the value of these pieces, the Court declines to use an average value to award damages for these titles,” Maloney wrote.

Notably, the son had self-valued his collection at $25,000.