July 25, 2008
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Golddigger
A jury has awarded a woman $150,000 in damages after her fiance broke up with her.
She sued him for breach of contract because she says she gave up her life and career for him. She also said, “He changed his mind for no good reason.” Here is the link: Link
Do you think a woman deserves money if a man breaks his promise to marry her?
Comments (129)
No.
I think they would deserve something.
Especially if you’ve already declared your engagement.
As a guy, I don’t believe in breaking up.
I’ve always been an advocate of monogamy, and if I’ve gone through the trouble of courtship, a breakup is in no-ones best interest.
In the matters of a calling-off of engagement, without reason?
I believe there is some kind of severance package included with that deal.
See: Dave Chappelle’s Love Contract
Nope.
That’s ridiculous.
Um. NO
nope! But I’m against marriage anyway
No one should be awarded money, just because someone broke up with them and doesn’t want them anymore.
no. that’s ridiculous.
“Gold diggin’ girls … drivin’ me crazy … I can’t take it no more …”
No. Unless fiance is a zillionaire then it is all right to bleed him dry.
She was incredibly stupid and naive to give up her life and career for a man. One must always have a back-up when the world goes to shit, which it always does. Cynical, me? No, just practical and prepared. (Not really)
Uhm no…
“Golddigger” is right. What a shameless woman.
No. If he decided he didn’t want to marry her, better to break it off now than get a divorce later- or settle down into decades of miserable living.
Oh hell no. He made a choice just like her. Should he sue her for her giving up her career and the fact he had to support her?! Stupid.
Xo
You’d think she would have had a backup plan, find another job closer to where they lived before even planning the wedding.
YES
Why is my answer always the opposite of every one elses?!?!?! haha
no.
Stupid useless gold-digging bitch. I hope I never end up with money so I don’t end up rubbing elbows with useless sacks of meat like this.
Grow some balls (and make your own money, even if you start over with nothing) you wrinkled wanna-be succubus.
oh please. reward me 150,000 dollars! My ex husband thought i was cheating on him and he left me. i gave up everything to give him anything he wanted.
is that fair??
puhhhlease! whateva…
any civil suit is frivilous,,, especially when it could be handled a lot quicker , cheaper, and to everyones satisfaction with dueling pistols.
I’m with Chris Rock on this subject.
@GhostBenjimon - yea,,, hahahahaha,,, she didnt look all that hot in the pic anyway,,,,, he may have had some bucks,,, but over all ,,, pretty much a loser…..
maybe with some make up,,,,, and a little work on that nose…..
Um. No. Engagement is not a contract.
No.
But she should probably be allowed to punch him in the face or something.
. . . that’s an abuse of the system, whether he breached contractual duty or not.
actually in Texas breach of promise to marry is considered a contractual violation AND a tort!
I think in that particular instance, yes. I also hope it starts a precedence and more women-and men-follow suit.
@k8tthelate - Woot! yeah
financial penalization of personal choices (that don’t specifically breach the law) and judicial intervention in personal matters is always a step above and beyond the jurisdiction of the law.
Hell no…………………same as people who devoice they should have everything split 50/50 even the kids………..ok so you cant cut a kid in 1/2……………better yet lets discontinue marraiges all together and make it short term contracts like 3 year deals……………after being married for 30 years I think my contract would have ended after 6 years for sure……………
@k8tthelate - well since you agree, let me ask you something. Was the decision to give up her life and career hers or his? What if she decided to break it off with him after saying yes (runaway bride anyone?), should he get money?
That’s rediculous! What a whiney *beep*. Breaking up with boyfriends/girlfriends whatever (even if you are engaged!) is a part of life. Get over it like the rest of society.
no
Big fat nope.
Yup…
…
She gave up her life & career based off of his promise…aka an oral contract…
@striemmy - the way I understood the article, she gave up her career, etc after reaching an agreement with him on the seriousness of the relationshhip and verbal agreement-which was then taken further by the ring, announcements, etc.
As for the question, if she had broken off, I don’t see what he would be out monetarily or career wise, aside from the ring, which she would of (hopefully) returned. Had he wished to persue ‘pain and suffering’, he possibly could be allowed that. State laws vary.The thing is, engagements are legal and binding contracts-but how they are viewed/perused from state to state vary. She is not the first to have done this, but just the first to make dan’s page
No, it is her own fault for giving up her life for a guy especially when she isn’t even married to the guy. She was probably planning on filing for divorce before she had been married long anyway in an attempt to get half of his crap.
No.
No, but he should pay for the wedding that he deserted.
NO!!!
Yes. Though, the burden of proof is on the woman to demonstrate the particulars of the oral contract.
If the woman’s action– quitting her lucrative job– is done unilaterally, then she shouldn’t be rewarded for shortsightedness. However, since the financial arrangements were muturally agreed upon, then then she really does deserve compensation.
@RaVnR - @amissong - @seedsower - @GhostBenjimon - @LiTo_kwiShtEe - @hannahtan528 - @mejicojohn - But get this, she got away with it! She was one smart cookie. Is this the same lady that sued McDonald’s…?..
YES!!! I think every woman should receive something for how cruel and terrible men are. Not fair that she’s the only one that got the money. She’s sticking up for women everywhere. NowI just need to be smart enough to do that next time.
@SpiritualBattlefield - Oh yea, the lady that sued McDonalds. She sued them, because a hot coffee fell on her and she got burned. Duh! Coffee is suppose to be hot and it does say it right on the cup, that it’s hot.
@striemmy - @cre13 - @mrcolorful - @decembriel - @Soultender - But get this, she got away with it! She was one smart cookie. Is this the same lady that sued McDonald’s…?..
@hannahtan528 - its crazy how people use the system to get ahead.
@hannahtan528 -@SpiritualBattlefield - ’O, if only you actually knew about the case:
A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full
thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body,
including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin
areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she
underwent skin grafting.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
The fact of the matter was the coffee was much hotter then it needed to be:
During the case, Liebeck’s attorneys discovered that McDonald’s required franchises to serve coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At that temperature, the coffee would cause a third-degree burn in two to seven seconds. Stella Liebeck’s attorney argued that coffee should never be served hotter than 140 °F (60 °C), and that a number of other establishments served coffee at a substantially lower temperature than McDonald’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Liebeck
@SpiritualBattlefield - it’s very possible she is
but more power to her i guess.
Nope. That’s just stupid.
Lol, no. That woman needs some serious help.
No. Isn’t life a bitch?
@Imp_is_lurking - Not for her anymore! Lol
yes i do
I don’t know about suing, but I do believe whomever ends the engagement should compensate for any wedding expenses that have been incurred and will not be refunded.
UH, NO? What a dumb fuckin’ cunt. LOL. Her ass got owned and she deserves it!
@huginn - She deserved to be burned anyway. She’s the dumb one. Not anyone else and certainaly not McDonalds.
@SpiritualBattlefield - People need to get a job, instead of hassling people for money.
Absolutely not. That’s ridiculous.
@hannahtan528 - She didn’t deserve to be turned this horrifically..
McDonalds was culpable for having their coffee much hotter than it needed to be.
hi, dan!!! know that your posts are making humanity think critically…inviting for evolution…
i give you my positive vibration that you are always empowered… Keep it coming! You are the man!!!
@huginn - She should of known, that it would be hot.
@hannahtan528 - She didn’t happily pour the coffee on herself in jest. The spilling was accidental. There was no way for her to judge the precise temperature of the coffee– that it were unreasonablly hot.
This is negligance on the part of McDonalds. The extra heat in the coffee served no function.
It would be no different if a toy manufacturer made toys with unusually sharp (rather than blunt) edges. If a child accidentally stabbed out his eye, is the toy company culpable? Absolutely. Likewise here with McDonalds.
@huginn - If a toy was sharp and the child cuts themselves, then it’s the parent’s fault, for not monitoring the child. I would never let my child play with something sharp.
@hannahtan528 - In the toy example, the toy company would have complete control of the toy manufacturing process. They designed and QC’ed the toy.
They willfully included a sharp design over a blunt one. And as a toy company, they understand that accidents happen.
Your backdating posts entry. NOT cool.
@huginn - So, it’s not the toy company’s fault.
@hannahtan528 - Do you think that negligence exists, legally? For your reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligence
No!! And if there was a ring…she should give it back, too!
Geez, can you imagine anyone even dating this woman now?
@huginn - For example, if a guy slips in a store, because the floor is wet, then it’s the store’s fault, for not mopping the floor. That’s one case.
@hannahtan528 - In the reasoning you’ve applied: It can’t be the store’s fault. The man should have seen the puddle.
An unmopped puddle is an accident waiting to happen. Coffee, much hotter than it needs to be, is an accident waiting to happen.
ah, no. first of all, engagement is not a contract. secondly, he obviously had a reason, even if he didn’t care to share it with her.
No she deserves something far worse
@rradiowar - It is an oral contract: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_contract
I hope they appeal that decision.
It’s opening a huge can of worms that can’t lead anywhere good.
It’s interesting legally…. It’s a long process to explain, however you can absolutely sue someone for damages due to the break up of an engagement if there were possessions and/or money involved. I would be interested to read what it was she was seeking recovery for…
(I’m a litigation paralegal by day…)
Ok ok I can’t resist… for example, if you proposed to me and tendered a ring… then I caused the engagement to break off (maybe I cheated on you, or I chose to break the engagement for whatever reason), then you are legally entitled to that ring back, because that ring was given to me on the condition that there was to be a wedding. However, since I breached that agreement, you are entitled to the compensation back.
However, if you broke off the engagement, then I am legally entitled to keep the ring because you breached the contract. It’s almost like a deposit… So maybe instead of a ring, there were other compensations involved with this woman….
Maybe I should shut up and read the article now…
what??!! that is crazy.
Um, right.
No.
no…what next?
HAH! What a douche that lady is…I hope she gets hit by a truck and that guy gets his money back.
Shit! We have to start signing contracts to get engaged? That’s it I am not getting married!
Erm, should be an agreement prior marriage between the two.
No. I’ll bet she spilled hot coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, too.
It doesn’t matter the gender of the individual wronged. Though, he could have handled things much, much better.
If you give up an 80k job for your future with someone who also assures you that your economic future is set with them (in love or not), then you have basically entered into a contract. It’s only fair that either party fulfill their obligations. If not, then it’s only fair that the wronged party be given sufficient resources until they are able to build a base and survive with new income.
You could argue that 150k is too much, but that’s different.
No!
Wow. She shouldn’t be given money. GOLDDIGGER!
Wow. I’m kinda taken aback at the hateful comments about women who put their significant other above their careers. Yet I wonder how many people would honestly NEVER give up anything important to them for someone they cared about.
I’m torn on this. Part of me says a break-up is a break-up, and it’d be different if they were married but they hadn’t done so yet. But I also think that if he asked her to give up her career and life for him, but then just left with no explanation, then she deserves something from him.
No
No.
I think she deserved it, since he was the one to ask her to marry him after she had decided to move on when they had broken up. It’s not fair to her when she had taken steps to move on and not desperate of her. I think she could have thought it out a bit more given their history (of him not wanting to commit), but when he asked her to marry him, it was like saying that he was committed to her and committed to being her better half. People should not make commitments like that on a whim.
I’m not so sure if she deserved that amount, but she definitely had a right to something.
No.
ok so this guy is a scumbag. he convinced her to move back in with him when she got a ring. But she jumped ship pretty fast when he asked!
Since when do affairs of the heart translate into lawsuits? Maybe he decided that he really didn’t love her. Or he saw her for a golddigger.
She moved on once, she shoulda moved on twice.
No more lawsuits just because there is no marriage. But yet a precedent has already been made. how messed up is this country???!!!
@k8tthelate - in what way are engagements legal and binding contracts? Does that mean that agreeing to be in a relationship constitutes a binding legal agreement? Because “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” sounds very much to me like “Would you be my wife?” I was under the impresson that there was nothing legally binding about it until they made it to the church/ city hall. Am I mistaken of my understanding of this concept?
Hmm. I view marriage as much more than this but technically, they did sign a contract together. He is in breach of contract and she is not in agreement. I think I’d have to say she deserves some sort of recompense.
Thats soooo rediculous! She left her job after he had already said he wasnt interested in marriage…. thats why she left him… what a moron. And who would justify how much the person deserves? And what contract? My ex-fiance left me for someone (her cousin of all people!) and suing her… wow thats gay
No
Why?
Sounds like the woman has a bad case of entitlement issues. Law states that she would not be entitled unless a marriage contract had been entered into. Whether common law or through documented marriage. ( Church, J.P., whatever)
i heard on the radio this morning about this, and they were saying that at first they thought the money was to cover the expenses for the wedding that were already paid or were nonrefundable, but when i heard the reason, i laughed. people are becoming more and more ridiculous, and sometimes are an embarrassment to other people around them.
I smell another Ashton Kutcher screenplay!
I dont think women deserve money bc their fiance called off their wedding but in this situation… I think she is entitled to it since she gave up her career for him.
In a situation when someone gives up their career to “ready” for marriage or a family….and missing out on money… then the spouse is liable. Thats how I think.
i’d be pretty disappointed to have a sum (no matter how large) pegged to the worth of my “life and career”.
My advice would be to wait until your actually married before you give up your life and job, then if he does leave you or a break-up happens, yeah, a girl has every right to damages
No. I think the only reason she won is because of the fact that she had moved away and gotten a good job that she gave up when she agreed to marry him. Why she did that I have no idea, but whatever. Even so, this seems like a very bad decision by the jury. Very bad.
I’m not sure it should be 150,000, but with the circumstances in the story I could see him owing her something.
thats rediculous.
@striemmy - it depends on the state, but yes. if you ask me to be your g/f and I say yes, we have an “agreement”-or a contract. Mind you this is vague (and sort of extreme) and essentially useless on it’s own, but it is a foundation of what may or may not happen in the future. any time two or more people agree to something-verbally or written, there is a contract (this can include emails & text messages).
Now where/how and if it goes anywhere from there is way way iffy. In order to sue you successfully in court, I have to show a significant loss or damages. In my state (texas) I can get you for contract breech AND get you again in a tort case. I may or may not win, but it’s open. Say, you cheat on me and/or decide to date other people, I really haven’t lost anything other my dignity and possibly a lousy b/f. However, if you ask me to a swanky affair (say a ring dance from your frat or big ta-da from your office) and I am thrilled and excited and spend $$$ on a new dress, shoes, make-up, hair, etc., then you dump me at the last moment and/or take someone else, then I can sue you to recover my financial loss (and if my lawyer is really good, pain and suffering). On your end, if I am known to drop $$$ at the drop of a hat on clothes all the time, you may have a chance of contesting it. If I am a poor girl (actually, there’s no if to that at all) and go out of my way or into debt for this special occassion, I’m probably going to win. In other words, there has to be a lot of factors built into my case to make it worthwhile and not frivilous. That said, most women (or men) are not going to take a legal route over a broken engagement-these are deeply personally issues and there is a great deal of hurt, embarrassment, humilitation and wounded pride-most of these are emotions that cause people to withdraw, not seek public redress. That said, just keep in mind the saying “Hell hath no fury…”
no… that’s stupid
Definately not. If this goes through, everyone who gets hurt in a break-up could sue whoever broke up with them. That’d gum up our legal system with even more unnecessary lawsuits.
Yes if you are giving up a certain lifestyle (moved to another city or country for example) because HE asked you to and you did and then he didn’t marry you. No if you gave up your lifestyle and he didn’t ask you to… In this case it looks like he asked her to and yeah I think its valid.
No. She should get over it and move on…………….
Wow. If this was the case then there would be many women wanting to be asked into marriage and be broken up with just before the wedding. I don’t know who is more absurd: Shell or the jury. To give up her career and life for the promise of a man she knew once-upon-a-time was not interested in marriage was her irresponsible mistake. Gold digger, indeed.
Maybe if he convinced her to quit her job, kind of like life insurance?
wow
@SomeCallMeAce - so if you begin courting someone and you realize later you just aren’t right for each other, wouldn’t it be better to break up than to enter a marriage that is in neither person’s best interest?
I don’t think she deserves anything. It sucks when an engagement is broken, but an engagement isn’t a full commitment. Marriage is. If, during the engagement, one person realizes it’s not going to work, it’s better to end it before the wedding day rather than after. He doesn’t necessarily need a good reason, at least not an explicit one. We don’t always know why we are uncomfortable with a situation, or at least we can’t always put it into words.
And a person should never give up their whole life and career for a relationship. Give up some things, yes, but not your whole life. You just end up resenting the person later.
@EccentricSiren - well when you put it that way, yes. Before enterting an engagement you realize it’s wrong. But I guess we have different approaches and definitions of courtship.
i say no! reasons being: never give up your life for another person, never marry for money,and never intend another to be your one way ticket out of your life’s problems.
Both that woman and that jury should be thrown in prison for criminal stupidity.
Just because you win in court doesn’t mean you’ll get paid. Oh, except for the lawyers-they will get their money, alright.
uhh no cuz you are not officially attached to him/her so tough titty
no. unless he forced you with a gun to your head [or something about as drastic] to give up everything [life and career] for him, then no. idk, maybe you should examine your motives, too? if you really loved him, then wouldn’t you be too heartbroken to demand money? maybe your book sor clothes left at his place, but money?!
No and because we’ve allowed it once…it’ll just snowball from there if people aren’t careful.
Depends on the circumstances.
Not money. An explanation seems mighty appropriate, though
I can see why he decided not to marry her though. What sane woman would unnecessarily give up everything else to center her entire life around one guy. Shes probably the smothering type. That and the fact she is petty, stupid and weak enough to sue a guy over something like this only further justifies the man’s reason for leaving her.
No.. definitely a golddigger. A woman deserves an explanation. She has a job anyway, right?
When my fiance broke off our engagement, I was stuck with “our” bills. He definately should have been partially liable for those. So, yes. In some instances, anyway.
For those who haven’t gone through a broken engagement, their comments really matter here.
@striemmy - A legally binding contract, oral or written, is one in which an agreement is made, and consideration is had. Consideration means money, a service, or something of monetary value to one party.
If you ask me to marry you, I say yes, then the “payment” (consideration) you give me to enter into the contract (marriage) with you is the ring. Therefore, it is a contract.
In order for you to break that contract, I am allowed to keep the ring, and potentially seek legal recovery, if it is so warranted. In most cases – it isn’t. The chick keeps the ring and that’s the end of it. However in this case, BASED UPON THE MUTUAL AGREEMENT THAT THERE WOULD BE A MARRIAGE, the woman justifiably left her job and this whole ordeal cost her quite a bit of money.
When someone poses the question to you in a flippant manner, it does seem like she’s an idiot. However, when you read about what this whole bag of b.s. cost her, it’s totally right that he pays her. She gave shit up (money, job, security) based upon his promise, and he left her high and dry.
That is rather silly. The only justification would be if they’d already laid down a lot of money for a HUGE wedding, but I somewhat doubt that.
no. you’re right. gold digger.
No! Geesh the things people sue for.