Break An Engagement, Pay Damages
July 26, 2008 / 2:12 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierThis is gender discrimination plain and simple. If a woman breaks an engagement, she can keep the ring. It’s a gift.
If this happens, it should be tough luck for the woman:
Nothing will heal a broken heart like $150,000.
That’s how much a Hall County jury has ruled Wayne Gibbs owes his ex-fiancee, RoseMary Shell, for breaking off their engagement. Shell sued for breach of contract after she left her $81,000-a-year job in Pensacola, Fla., in 2006 to move to Gainesville, Ga., and be with her fiancee.
Two months later, Gibbs told her he was having second thoughts. He broke up with her in March 2007.
Shell now makes $31,000 a year. The jury award equals one year of her old salary plus bonuses and benefits.
Shell told The Times of Gainesville she is “thrilled.”
Gibbs and his attorney declined comment to the newspaper.
A woman who gives up a job for a man made a choice. She could have chosen differently. How is it his fault, when he’s just being honest and avoiding a big mistake? And, by the way, why can’t she go and find a job like she had?
