Minggu, 27 Juli 2008

Jilted Bride awarded $150,000 by jury



A Georgia woman was awarded $150,000 by a jury after she sued her ex-fiancé for breach of contract. RoseMary Shell’s former love called off their wedding three days before the big event – and did it by leaving her a note in the bathroom. What a classy guy.

Shell says she left a job which paid $81,000 a year along with friends and family in Florida to move to Georgia to be with Wayne Gibbs. Gibbs claims that he called off the wedding because Shell was drowning in debt – which she and her lawyer refute.

Shell argued her fiance's promise of marital bliss amounted to a binding contract. She said she left a high-paying job in Florida to be with Gibbs and she said she has suffered financial losses since their break-up. She also said she has suffered emotionally.

Gibbs testified that he had taken Shell on trips and paid $30,000 of her debt while they were engaged. He said when he found out she had even more debt, he canceled the wedding by leaving Shell a note in their bathroom.

Closing arguments were heard Wednesday morning and the jury awarded Shell $150,000 by Wednesday afternoon. "People shouldn't be allowed to do that and hopefully he'll think twice before he does it to someone else," said Shell.

[From ABC affiliate WSBT]

RoseMary Shell and her lawyer appeared on the Today show this morning to discuss the judgment. Wayne Gibbs chose not to appear, but his lawyer did.

Speaking to Meredith Vieira on Friday's Today show, where she appeared with her attorney Lydia J. Sartain, Shell refuted Gibbs's claim that she was swimming in debt. The allegation, she said, is "simply not true."

While Gibbs did not appear on Today, his attorney, Hammond Law, reportedly told jurors in his closing arguments for the breach-of-contract suit: "You would be sending the message that if you have a dispute with somebody and you think they have been a scoundrel, go get a lawyer and hope the Brink's truck backs up to the jury room." He added, "If you award one penny, you're saying, 'File frivolous lawsuits.' "

[From People]

This is one of those cases that garners a lot of publicity and heated arguments. I can really understand both sides of the issue. On the one hand, no one should be forced to marry someone they don’t want to marry. An engagement in and of itself isn’t generally considered a legal contract; the marriage is the legal contract. But you could argue that the engagement is the agreement to enter into the contract, and that was broken. But the alternative seems pretty unfair: marry someone you don’t want to be with?

All that said, RoseMary Shell gave up a high paying job to be with Wayne Gibbs, and he knew that. However it doesn’t seem like he gave up much to be with her. I’ve read several articles, and it doesn’t seem true that Shell had a great deal of debt. It sounds more like a legal excuse Gibbs or his attorneys were using.

I could understand if Shell wanted to recoup the wedding costs, but obviously this judgment was punitive. It makes for some interesting discussions because both sides have a point.

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