Being sued for unrealised wedding costs in California. Is it valid?

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Veronica1980

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Hi,

I am a citizen of singapore and was engaged to an american in california. He proposed to me over our chat and proceeded to arrange for a wedding. I flew to california a few days before the wedding, only to realised that I was jilted and left to myself at the airport.

I took a taxi to his only known address, but was not able to locate my then fiance. I flew back to Singapore after a 2-day search.

During the preparation of the wedding, I was not told explicitly the costs of wedding items, but was given brief descriptions of the preparations, eg. "100 singapore orchids were bought" and others similar to that. Other than acceptance of his proposal over the internet, there are no written agreements nor consent towards the wedding or any of the costs. There has been no engagement ring received by me and I was the one who bought the wedding rings, which have since been exchanged.

I would like to know the following:
1. Given the circumstances above, is he able to sue me for the wedding costs?
2. If yes, what can I do to fight the lawsuit?
3. Also, does he have to bring the lawsuit to singapore if he files?
4. How can he claim against me and what are my options?

Thank you
 
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He can sue. Whether he will win is another matter.

HAS he sued? Unless and until he does, there is no point in worrying about it.
 
He'll have to persuade a judge that you agreed to pay some portion of the costs. I suspect that won't be too much of a stretch given you were getting married. Arguably you might defend on the grounds that you only entered the agreement based on his misrepresentation that you were to be married. You might also want to countersue for your costs thrown away in travelling to the US and any other costs you incurred in preparation for the wedding.

He'll have to show the wedding costs incurred that you should bear a part of. Receipts, etc. Who knows what he has.

He can probably file suit in the US. That's where he's located, where the marriage proposal originated from, and where whatever costs of the wedding were incurred. That's probably enough for a US court to take jurisdiction.

If he's successful, he'll have to try to enforce the judgment against you in Singapore. I don't know what arrangements exist between the US and Singapore for enforcement of foreign judgments.

If he claims against you, get a lawyer with some knowledge of conflict of laws. You might be able to just sit back home in Singapore and thumb your nose at him because he can't collect against you.
 
Thank you for the replies months ago.

There are some updates to this and I'm not sure if I can sought further advice here.

1. Majority of the wedding costs were paid by a friend of mine, who later sued him and won. (This information came from my friend, I have not seen any legal documents about it.)

2. My then fiance has been harassing me for the past few days over my work email and on MSN (I've learned to keep all copies of it) and threatening to bring the suit to Singapore on grounds that I have been dodging him. FYI, I did change my job because the employer went bust and I have not changed my contact details including my home address and cell phone number for more than 2 years.

3. Under stress and panic, my friend from Point 1 advised me to pay him and thus, an email was sent from my address stating that he will be paid and it was indicated that my friend will pay on my behalf (I have documents of his advice as well). Can I get away stating that I was under duress when such decisions were made?

4. Now that friend has gone back on his words and is cancelling the payment that he mentioned to be on my behalf. He has also been very mean in my recorded MSN conversations with him. Is this misrepresentation? Will it help my case?

Till date, all the information that I know and received have been via MSN and emails from the 2 parties mentioned. I have not received a single document from the US courts nor any legal representatives for this case.

Am I just over-worrying or should I really be worried and preparing for a possible law suit? I am still based in Singapore and has not travelled since returning from the US last year.
 
Your friends agreement to pay your costs mystifies me. Even more so if your friend was involved in a lawsuit to recover costs from your former fiancee. Even more so if your friend cancelled the payment they were going to make. That makes no sense on so many levels.

My two cents: you're probably over-worrying. The only way to tell what your possible exposure is is to go see a lawyer. So go see one.
 
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