Moving company ruined New York couple's belongings worth $70

The couple, who worked in New York, said their $70 worth of belongings were "deliberately left to rot" by a professional storage company. The company did not inform them of the damage until the day of the move. Their things got moldy and started to stink, reports New York Post.

Dennis and Ashley Ellis were thrilled to learn that their belongings, including furniture, clothes and even a wedding album, were "allegedly" left in stagnant water for months, according to a March 16 lawsuit by Ashley and the Manhattan Supreme Court.

The couple, who mostly live in Los Angeles, said they were greeted with a "rotten smell" when the company left their boxes in their new West End apartment on Dec. 19, the case file says.

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Ashley, who married a lawyer in 2019, said some important items such as their wedding album, family photos and a family tree book they received as a wedding gift were also damaged.

By refusing to accept damaged items, the company, as well as State Farm Home Insurance, said they would not cover the damage.

The couple's lawsuit, which also names State Farm as a defendant, accuses them of having "the audacity to appear with a truckload of moldy, damaged, and destroyed property that was apparently deliberately left to rot for months, but acted in such a way that like nothing happened."

Ashley blamed the company for not delivering on a promise

“You want to hire a professional company, and when they bring your stuff in – the stuff is green and moldy, they don’t try to compensate at all,” Ashley lamented.

Dennis is a partner in the firm dealing with his case, Ellis George Cipollon and Ashley decided to move into an apartment in New Yorkas they had a one year old son and needed more space to accommodate a large family.

“Now we have an empty house and we have no furniture,” Ashley said. We don't have a bed. I have an 18 month old son but no crib."

“It was Christmas,” she said. Everything was delayed. Now we are just starting to buy furniture. It was a nightmare.

The company claimed that all of Ellis' belongings, which she kept for eight months in her former apartment in the area Lincoln Center, only cost $5000 when they actually cost $70.

The company issued a "deepest apology" to free itself from payment of damages. The staff responded to the couple that it was not their fault and that "no one can control mother nature" without acknowledging or explaining how the damage occurred, the complaint said.

Ellis was paid a flat rate of $2500 for shipping her items, in addition to $5500 a month for storage from April 19, 2021. The couple, who have been regular customers of State Farm since 2007, paid the insurer approximately $500 in premiums, the lawsuit alleges.

Flat Rate's attorney David Giampietro said the company is not commenting on pending litigation. He said the case was linked to the historic Hurricane Ida.

Ellis family attorney Geoffrey Mitchell said that even if the Ida storm was to blame for the damage, the company did not call Ellis to tell them what happened at the time and made no attempt to save the belongings.

“They just left them there to rot, and then they delivered them to the client and washed their hands of their responsibility,” the lawyer said.

State Farm did not respond to a request for comment.