National Harbor bedbug suit heads back to Pr. George’s County

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A Virginia woman has filed a lawsuit against a National Harbor hotel claiming she received more than 300 bedbug bites during an overnight stay in April.

Joanne Orhue’s suit states she discovered 10 bedbugs the morning of April 29 when she pulled back a comforter in her room at the Wyndham Vacation Resorts at National Harbor, including one “engorged with blood,” according to the complaint. Throughout the rest of day, she began to have “severe itching” all over her body and had bites on her arms, face, neck and chest.

More bites appeared in the following days on her neck, foot and ears, according to the complaint.

“There’s scarring all over her body,” said Daniel W. Whitney, her attorney. “It’s embarrassing.”

A spokeswoman for Wyndham Vacation Ownership Inc. said it is company policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Orhue’s lawsuit was initially filed in Prince George’s County Circuit Court in August and was transferred to U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Friday. Whitney said Monday that the case will be voluntarily sent back to Prince George’s County because the hotel’s general manager is a resident of Maryland, not Virginia as originally stated in the lawsuit.

Whitney, of Whitney & Bogris LLP in Towson, has successfully litigated other bedbug cases, including an $800,000 verdict in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court stemming from an infestation in an Annapolis apartment unit.

Orhue, who works at George Washington University Hospital, was staying at a friend’s timeshare at the Wyndham to celebrate her 30th birthday, according to Whitney.

The lawsuit alleges the infestation in Orhue’s room was “long-term and entrenched” and that the Wyndham had received prior complaints of bedbugs at National Harbor.

“If a bedbug problem is not addressed immediately and completely, it will grow quickly and spread through the entire Hotel, unit-by-unit and floor-to-floor,” the complaint states.

Whitney recently filed suits against the Hilton Baltimore and Brookshire Suites hotel at the Inner Harbor, and has a case pending against the Borgata in Atlantic City.

“I’ve seen more and more cases against luxury hotels by guests who have been bitten numerous times,” Whitney said.

Orhue’s lawsuit seeks damages for negligence and violation of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, alleging the hotel knew her room was not fit for occupation.