The clash began after Spring refused to pay a $287 electrician’s bill that his landlord forwarded him for the repair of a burnt-out socket in his unit. Shortly after, the landlord notified Spring that his rent would increase by $100 per month.
The jury awarded Spring $16,000 — an amount that Oregon law doubles to $32,000 because of the nature of the violation. On top of that, Spring’s attorneys also are entitled to ask a judge to order the landlord to pay all of Spring’s legal fees, an amount that currently stands at $225,000.
Office expenses and office staff, too. I worked for a particular industry that used software that we plugged in monthly expenses, annual, and semiannual, including payroll, and it gave us back prices for individual screws that would bug your eyes from your head to also cover a nominal profit (about 15%), and unexpected expenses like insurance rate hikes for liability insurance, workers’ comp, broken equipment, etc. So that $0.30 screw suddenly became $6.