School Discarded Project w/o Warning

[breakofday5]

I am currently a student at an art school in Orlando. Every term, if a student's project is top quality the school uses the projects as artwork and hangs them on the wall. One of my projects was chosen and has been hanging on the wall of the school for over one year.

On 3/9 I received an email stating I had projects for pick-up and they would be discarded by 4/10 if not picked up. No exact description was provided as to what projects the email was referring to. On 3/19 I met with the teacher I was advised to meet with in the email and he could not locate any projects I needed to pick up. No list was available for him to cross reference. As of 3/19, my project was still hanging on the wall of the school. I was informed on 4/20 that this project was discarded. I have been emailing the individual who discarded the project and was informed that the projects were removed from the wall on 3/20, and that I should have checked again for additional projects to be picked up before the 4/10 deadline.

The project discarded not only cost me quite a bit of money to create, but also 40+ hours. Does this incident warrant me to file a small claims suit for property damage?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You can file a claim - it would seem you've got a very good case. If you met with the teacher and he/she knew you made the effort to come in, why didn't that teacher prior arrange to have the projects available to you for pickup? Why didn't the teacher make arrangements to find the projects after you came in? I think your compensation would depend upon the utility of the item amongst other factors. I wouldn't expect any windfall, especially if the project was of the kind that would likely be discarded later.