Erik Connell (Of Counsel-Seattle, WA) won summary judgment for our client storage unit company that discovered more than a thousand pounds of suspected marijuana when it entered the plaintiff’s storage unit after he failed to pay rent. It notified police, and the contents of the unit were confiscated and destroyed. The plaintiff sued our client for breaching its contract with him by entering his storage unit and turning over what he alleged to be $26 million worth of hemp to police. The plaintiff further alleged that our client failed to comply with both Washington’s preliminary lien notice and final notice of lien sale statutes when notifying him of his unpaid rent, alleging technical violations of both statutes. Erik moved for summary judgment. The court held that whether our client complied with these statutes was of no consequence, as it did not sell the contents of the unit; it turned them over to the police. The court held that storage unit company employees were reasonably concerned that storing 1,387 pounds of what they suspected to be marijuana would open them up to criminal liability. The standard in the contract was that the company could not act with gross negligence, but the court went further to hold that company employees did not even act with ordinary negligence in turning over the alleged hemp to police.