Legal News

What Happened in Vegas Lands Man in Jilted Bride Suit

By Matthew Heller, Editor

For Robert Leighton, what happened in Vegas allegedly didn't stay there. And now his ex-fiancée is suing him for breaching his duty of ?implied fidelity? by having sex with a woman he met in Las Vegas, where he had gone for his bachelor party.

Leighton's encounter with a woman identified only as ?Danielle? allegedly occurred five weeks before he was due to marry Lauren Serafin in Chicago. After he returned home from Vegas, he called off the wedding.

In a complaint filed last week, Serafin is not only suing Leighton under an Illinois law that allows claims for breach of a promise to marry but limits a plaintiff's recovery to wedding expenses. She is also going after him for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), which entitles her to compensatory and punitive damages.

?[B]ecause of the fact that Plaintiff and Defendant were engaged to be married, Defendant had a fiduciary duty of implied fidelity,? Serafin says.

The lawsuit is the second of its kind to be filed in Chicago in the past three months. Dominique Buttitta sued her ex-fiancé Dec. 10, alleging he broke his promise to marry her and acted outrageously by, among other things, ?receiving lap dances and other physical contact? from strippers at his bachelor party.

Both plaintiffs may have a valid claim for wedding costs ? Serafin is seeking $62,814.71 while Buttitta has asked for $95,942.11.

But the IIED claims seem to be exactly the sort of thing that Illinois lawmakers wanted to abolish when they enacted the Breach of Promise Act in 1947. ?The best interests of the people of the state,? the law says,

will be served by limiting the damages recoverable in [breach-of-promise] actions and by leaving any punishment of wrongdoers guilty of alienation of affections to proceedings under the criminal laws of the state, rather than to the imposition of punitive, exemplary, vindictive, or aggravated damages in actions for alienation of affections.

Serafin says Leighton made his marital promise on July 2, 2009 and she booked a banquet hall at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago hotel for the wedding. Other expenses included her wedding dress, bachelorette party, and airline reservations for the honeymoon.

On July 16, 2010, Leighton traveled to Las Vegas for his bachelor party with male co-workers, friends and family members, returning home two days later. Serafin saw some suspicious text messages but ?seemingly believing that 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,'? Leighton initially ?denied that anything happened between himself and Danielle.?

He finally fessed up July 29, the suit says, blaming his infidelity on Serafin and telling her he no longer wanted to marry her.

Even if the Breach of Promise Act does not preclude the emotional distress claim, Serafin will have to show that Leighton's behavior was ?so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency.?

The suit indicates Leighton went beyond those bounds because, among other things, he knew he had his fiancée's ?undivided love, loyalty and trust,? that they had invited 170 people to their wedding, and that by sleeping with another woman he could infect Serafin with a sexually transmitted disease.

But as an Oregon appeals court has noted, infidelity is ?unfortunate but not uncommon behavior ... For better or worse, society tolerates extramarital relationships.? Rosenthal v. Erven, 17 P.3d 558 (2001). While Serafin and Leighton had yet to marry, the same argument should apply to his bachelor party indiscretion.

Serafin's fear of STD transmission, moreover, is likely not actionable because she does not allege actual exposure to any disease.

By Matthew Heller
On Point

Full post as published by On Point News on March 06, 2011 (boomark / email).