Hyattstown Woman Sues Buy Nothing Group for Emotional Distress; Demands Reinstatement

In a complaint filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Thursday, Edna Rawlingson of Hyattstown is seeking $40,000 in compensatory damages from her local Buy Nothing Group for “severe emotional distress caused by intentional, malicious, public bullying and humiliation” from her fellow BNG members and its administrators. Rawlingson’s attorney also filed a motion for injunctive relief, asking the court to require the BNG to immediately reinstate her membership. The BNG booted Rawlingson last month after “repeated violations of our Group Rules,” according to a now-removed post on the group’s Facebook page.

Rawlingson’s expulsion came in September as a result of her post offering “A large collection of mis-matched men’s socks.” In her post, Rawlingson revealed that when cleaning her son’s room after he left home for his sophomore year at Hampden-Sydney College, she found more than a “dozen, mis-matched socks, stiff as boards, shoved between the bed and the wall.” Her post went onto say the socks had been washed but the recipient may want to wash them again.

Rawlingson’s membership in the BNG was suspended twice before the current row. First in March 2021 for posting a Safeway shopping cart someone abandoned in her yard, and again in January 2022 for posting 100 identical items in a single day rather than one post offering to give 100 of the items away.

“I’ve given away cast iron in this Group! The way I’m treated is ridiculous,” Rawlingson told The Montgonion. Administrators for the BNG have not responded to this reporter’s emails.