83-year-old woman sues Honolulu after website error turned into $590K nightmare
An 83-year-old woman is suing the city of Honolulu after she was fined nearly $600,000 over an online rental listing error.
Sandra May has lived in her Honolulu home for 56 years, raising her son there and relying on rental income from an attached apartment to supplement her fixed income.
According to a newly filed federal lawsuit, the City and County of Honolulu fined May $10,000 a day for nearly two months over a glitch on the rental website. May’s attorney said the hosting platform's system accidentally permitted users to view short-term availability, even though users could not actually book a short-term stay during this period.
Under Honolulu ordinances, residential properties outside designated resort zones cannot be rented or advertised for periods of less than 30 days.
According to the complaint, the city issued a notice of violation, but May did not immediately see the mail because she had been hospitalized following a serious car crash. By the time she returned home and was able to address the matter, the fines had ballooned to $590,000.
When May contacted city officials to explain the medical emergency and rectify the listing, she said their only response was to tell her to hire a lawyer.
"It feels to me like they're just trying to take my house, put me on the street with the rest of the homeless people," May told Fox News Digital. "It's very depressing, very upsetting."
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The city has placed a lien on her house and has blocked her from accessing basic government services, such as renewing her driver's license or car registration, forcing her to find other methods of transportation.
May told Fox News Digital she cannot afford to pay such a heavy fine and that the thought of losing her treasured home of over 50 years is devastating.
"All the stress, the stomach problems, every day wondering if I'm gonna have a house... I was gonna live here for the rest of the days I have," May said. "This is actually — I call this my little piece of paradise on earth. ... The thought of losing it is — I can't imagine."
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"It's really frightening. I don't want to be a burden on my son," she added.
May's legal team argues the massive penalty violates the Eighth Amendment, which shields against government fines that far outweigh the underlying offense.
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"The Constitution prohibits excessive fines," Loren Seehase, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, told Fox News Digital. "Governments cannot simply impose fines that are so ruinous that they would financially devastate someone over a simple error. And that's what we're fighting for."
Seehase noted that the case is part of a broader issue in Honolulu, where she said the city has issued more than $90 million in fines for similar advertising violations.
"In Sandra's case, she was in and out of the hospital, couldn't get her mail, didn't know about the violation, and it took her 59 days to correct it," she continued. "And rather than having some sympathy and understanding that she was out of and in the hospital. They said, Well, we're going to still fine her $590,000."
The city of Honolulu said they could not comment on pending litigation.