Posted on 11/19/2004 10:18:36 AM PST by Former Military Chick
(AP) A federal jury awarded as much as $434,000 to a Ukrainian woman who sued the Internet matchmaking service that set her up with the man who allegedly abused her after they wed.
Nataliya Fox accused Encounters International of fraud and negligence, saying it should have screened its male clients and told her about a law that helps foreign nationals escape abusive relationships without fear of automatic deportation.
Instead, Fox testified, agency owner Natasha Spivack told her to endure the alleged abuse or return to Ukraine.
The agency had said it had no obligation to tell Fox about the so-called battered-spouse waiver because it never recruited her as a client. Spivack testified that Fox made up the story to get a U.S. visa. She said she had only introduced two adults and could not be held responsible for what happened.
Fox, now a civil engineer engaged to someone else, was 27 when she married 34-year-old James Fox in November 1998, less than three months after meeting him through the agency.
In July 2000, she said, her husband started a two-hour beating as she breast-fed their baby. After visiting a hospital, she and the child went to a women's shelter. James Fox flew to Haiti and got a divorce, according to testimony in the civil trial.
James Fox testified he did not beat his wife and described her as "nutty" and "a fruitcake." Court records show he was charged criminally in Virginia but had his record expunged after completing a class for batterers. He was not a defendant in the lawsuit because of an earlier settlement, in which Nataliya Fox received $115,000.
The lawsuit against Encounters International — whose Web site boasts 257 married couples, 103 babies and 19 current engagements — was described as the first in the United States to hold an Internet dating service responsible in a relationship that went sour.
The jury awarded monetary damages for specific counts of the lawsuit. Nataliya Fox's lawyers said that they calculated the total award at $434,000. Zukerberg said the total may be lower.
Spivack was "extremely disappointed" with Thursday's award and will ask that it be reduced, said her attorney, Paul Zukerberg.
©MMIV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
I don't find it funny- two adults were involved- and the court blamed a THIRD PARTY?
I've got to track down the woman and her address who introduced me to my wife. I plan on suing for millions!
If it were me I would not find it funny, but, what I do find funny is what we have come to that folks need a match maker to get a date, I see the commericals on TV.
But worse that the courts are taking this up.
I have always thought there was something borderline illegal about these firms who do this. The difference between what they are doing, and outright sham green card marriages, is not all that great. In fact, let me up the ante and say the DHS ought to do some serious investigation of the whole rotten business.
So, what are you doing later on tonight?
I know a few people who have met people via match.com and my father in-law met his current wife through a similar service. None of them are ugly or freaky. They just wanted to expand the pool of people they were meeting.
HOWEVER, I do think these people who fly to foreign countries, meet someone at a party then are engaged less then a week later, and then married a couple of months after that are nutty. Usually you can take one look at them or talk to them for a minute or two and see why they had to leave the country to get a date.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.