Comments on: Love me, leave me, pay me

By: REG

REG — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:21:28 +0000

Thank God for women lawyers. Thank God for women doctors, in my case. It was a Christian mother who was my doctor and talked straight with me as no male doctor had done in 20 years. Sometimes a woman is what is needed.

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By: Random Name

Random Name — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:31:14 +0000

How many cows or goats did he pay in the first place?

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By: NJLawyer

NJLawyer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:36:51 +0000

I saw the GMA story this morning. She did sue for breach of promise. Some states still have those old statutes. She claimed she gave up an $80,000/yr job, lost her health insurance, gave up her home, and that he’d left her having to start from scratch to get those things back. Not only did she win the $150,000 to help her get back on her feet (and okay, I can understand the jury verdict), she is going back to court for PUNITIVE damages. (She had a woman lawyer.)

There was dissent amongst the jurors, too, as well as other lawyers who practice in this area.

We’ll see what happens. Kristin, since you found this article, can you keep us apprised about what happens in the “punitive” phase? (I don’t think she’ll prevail there.)

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By: Kiyoshi

Kiyoshi — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:18:15 +0000

Did the jury really find that the man’s promise constituted an enforceable contract? It seems that consideration could be lacking. Moreover, if it were an enforceable contract, she could ask a court to make him specifically perform on the contract.

It seems more like a case of promissory estoppel.

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By: NJLawyer

NJLawyer — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:37:01 +0000

I just saw on the news that this lady will be on GMA tomorrow morning.

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By: NJLawyer

NJLawyer — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:45:32 +0000

Cheese and crackers, what a tough crowd! What KRM said — this has been going on for centuries and all of a sudden you’re upset! (You know, the common law has followed the biblical idea that once you promise, you’re committed.)

There are statutes about this sort of thing — heart balm statutes — and they’re as old as the hills.

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By: TRS

TRS — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:27:47 +0000

Reg,

While in completely different circumstances, I DO understand bitterness. I am still bitter over something that happened over 6 years ago now. However, I recognize the problem, and I have been asking the Lord to help me deal with it, and He has. Slowly but surely the bitterness is going away.

It NEEDS to go away. The ladies are right. Every post you make shows a depth of bitterness that would be hard to miss even by someone with no empathy at all. You must pray to let this go. It will infect your life, your children’s lives, your new spouse’s life…everything about you and everything you touch.

You must be able to reach a point where you forgive your ex. I know. It sounds impossible. And it is without God.

Nothing is impossible with God.

But, the first step is admitting there is a problem and desiring for God to help you deal with it.

I know. I really do, although in a different way. But, the posters above are right. They are reaching out to you with God’s hand behind them.

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By: RonD

RonD — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:05:01 +0000

If you’re not married, but live as if you are and start to weave your lives together financially, etc., then her suit/award makes sense—especially in our increasingly litigious society.

It seems though that the wiser path would be to forgo the fleshly benefits of marriage until you’re absolutely certain you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, have a rock solid prenupt and actually are married. Funny that it was ever just about love, huh?

In deference to NJL’s seeming professionalism, the way we’re headed I could see Ambulance Chaser suits eventually being brought for fouling someone’s air with bad breath and causing global warming. Lawyers gotta eat too and since were up to the back pockets in them, along with enough new legislation enacted annually to keep millions of them busy, where’s the surprise. Heck, we’ve already got a major political party continuing to drum up work for them as we glyph.

If the above prediction/direction of where we’re headed pans out, wisdom would avoid other people entirely.

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By: krm

krm — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:01:53 +0000

Breach of Promise is a very old cause of action – many hundreds of years – in English common law (which we continued on with when the US split from England).

There are fairly well established rules for determining damages. This case is no more pioneering than a slip and fall case.

She apparently made a sufficient showing under the well established rules for these types of cases that the jury found for her. If they misappied the rules, and he appeals, it will be reversed or the damages reduced.

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By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:46:31 +0000

45, REE wrote; “I’m a little surprised that Christians seem to be unanimously agreed that, prior to the marriage vows, nothing is binding.”

That’s a false reading of what has been said. I question that this should have been “legally” binding and I question that he was the only one seriously at fault. She should take more respeonsibility for her decisions and her feelings. And Wedding vows should be the line, before God the law, friends and family.

We don’t know that these were Christians, but had they been, they might have had a clearer vision for that sacred line!

I even agree with you, REE, that living together should increase some moral obligations, but what does morality have to do with shacking up in the first place? Women who do that should know the risks and (often) stupidity involved, and not go crying to a jury when it blows up in her face.

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