- Doug Costello sold a used printer on Craigslist in 2009 for $40
- The buyer, Gersh Zavodnik, said the printer was broken and sued him for $6000
- Costello spent almost seven years in a legal nightmare and at one point was found liable for $30,000 in damages
- Zavodnik is an prolific litigant who has filed over 200 lawsuits, mostly involving things he bought online
- The nightmare may not be over yet
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A man who sold a used printer on Craigslist for $40 spent $12,000 in legal fees and the next six-and-a-half years mired in a legal nightmare after the buyer sued him, claiming the printer was broken.
In 2009, Doug Costello, 66, of Ashland, Massachusetts, had no idea what he was in for when he happened to sell a used printer to Gersh Zavodnik, 54, of Indianapolis, Indiana, a man with a long history of suing people, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Costello says with shipping costs included, the printer sold for approximately $75. The next thing he knew, he was being sued for what the buyer said was a broken printer.
Doug Costello, above, has been mired in a legal quagmire ever since he sold a used printer on Craiglist in 2009
The buyer, Zavodnik, who came to the U.S. from the Ukraine in 1987 under political asylum, accused Costello of falsely advertising a malfunctioning printer with missing parts. He initially filed a lawsuit in small claims court asking for maximum damages of $6,000.
The case was dismissed because Zavodnik had thrown out the 'evidence' - the printer.
Costello hoped that would be the end of the matter. 'I figured that's it,' Costello told the outlet. 'But no, no, no. Now I'm in another twilight zone.'
In 2010, Zavodnik sent Costello paperwork asking him to admit that he was liable for $30,000 for breach of contract, fraud, conversion, deceptive advertising, and emotional distress.
The case was dismissed - along with 26 others filed by the prolific litigant.
But in 2012, an appeals court suddenly revived the lawsuit, and sent it back down to trial court, where it lingered for nine months.
Meanwhile, Zavodnik sent Costello two more requests for admissions of liability - one for more than $300,000 and one for more than $600,000.
The printer (stock photo above) Costello sold in 2009 went for about $75, $40 if shipping costs are deducted - it would end up costing him $12,000 and six years of his life
Zavodnik was apparently well aware that a litigant who doesn't respond to a filing of admissions admits to liability by default - and that's exactly what happened. Costello says he never received the requests for admissions.
Overwhelmed, Costello finally caved in and hired an attorney. He says he racked up at least $12,000 in legal bills trying to get himself out of the legal quagmire.
The case worked its way slowly through the legal system, with many judges recusing themselves, likely because they had dealt with Zavodnik (who always represents himself) in the past.
'I can assure you each and every judge here in Marion County knows who Gersh Zavodnik is,' Indianapolis attorney Chad D. Wuertz told the Detroit Free Press in 2013. 'And at the very moment one of his cases lands on their docket, they are considering how to deal with him.
In March 2015, six years after Costello placed that fateful Craigslist ad, Special Judge J. Jeffrey Edens issued a ruling against Costello giving Zavodnik a judgment of $30,044.07 for breach of contract.
Edens admitted the amount was 'high' for a case involving a used p rinter, but blamed the Supreme Court because of an earlier ruling about litigants who don't respond to admissions filings.
'What kind of reality am I in now?" Costello told the Detroit Free Press of his despondent response to the ruling. 'I don't know what's going on. Why don't I know what's going on?'
Costello is hardly the only one who has fallen into the nightmare of Zavodnik's perpetual litigation. In a case where a woman reneged on an agreement to buy digital camera equipment, he sought $1.2 million in damages.
Most of Zavoidnik's lawsuits involve things he bought online. 'I cannot go and beat people on the knees like they did back in Russia,' he said. As of 2013, he had sued more than 100 people and had 100 more in the works, reports the Detroit Free Press.
Eventually another judge, Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik, overturned the ruling and came down sharply in Costello's favor, dismissing the judgment.
Costello was relieved when the judgment was dismissed. 'I've had this huge weight, this financial and emotional weight for six and a half years,' he said.
But Costello's nightmare may not be over yet. A friend of Zavodnik's - who says he does research for him and also frequently sues in the name of ending 'Marion County judicial corruption' - says that Zavodnik will likely ask for yet another hearing.
Additionally, an appeals court sent the case back down to trial court to try to determine if the case should have been dismissed 'based on Zavodnik's repeated, flagrant, and continuing failure to comply with Indiana's rules of procedure.'
Meanwhile, Costello says he will never sell anything else on Craigslist again - and he has no plans to counter sue Zavodnik.
'I've had enough,' he said. 'I don't need him in my life anymore.'
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