A Beaufort County, South Carolina bride’s wedding was canceled due to COVID-19 and now her mother is suing the place to get the deposit money back.
Doreen Haughton-James filed a lawsuit against Mackey Entertainment, owners of the popular Mackey House site in Savannah, Georgia, on January 4 in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Haughton–James’ daughter Jordan was planning to get married at Mackey House on March 20, 2020 and they deposited $ 14,803 to guarantee the location, according to the lawsuit.
The only written document on the forum agreement was written by mistake to the groom’s mother, according to the suit.
On March 13, a week before the wedding, the COVID-19 pandemic started to get out of hand in the United States. President Donald Trump asked Americans to limit all meetings to less than 10 people and restaurants, he said. That week, schools and restaurants closed in South Carolina.
However, on the wedding day, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp did not impose any restrictions on public meetings, despite the president’s encouragement to limit the meetings.
On March 15, Haughton–James told Mackey House employees that his family had decided to cancel the wedding “due to the cancellation of his guest and health considerations,” the suit said.
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Haughton–James then requested a refund for almost $ 15,000 she gave the Mackey house for the deposit, according to the lawsuit. At first, they offered to pay $ 3,950, but later refused to return any part of the deposit money.
According to the lawsuit, Mackey House employees did not respond to any of the Haughtons–James requests for deposit refunds until May 2020. The process did not specify with which response.
Haughton–James is suing Mackey Entertainment for breach of contract accompanied by fraud, conversion, breach of trust and unjust enrichment.
Mackey House had no food or labor expenses from the wedding, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Mackey House could not have held an alternative event that day due to the unforeseen circumstances of the pandemic.
The lawsuit requires Mackey Entertainment to return Haughton–James at least the $ 14,800 and for consequential and punitive damages, which will be proven in court.
“Mackey’s failure to repay Doreen’s funds as a result of force majeure of Covid Pandemic and the impossibility of execution by Mackey is a violation of the Contract of the Proposal between the parties ”, affirms the process.
According to the New York Times, many marriage contracts contain a force majeure clause, which allows either party to cancel the marriage due to nature or “an act of God”.
However, the New York Times reported that the pandemic itself does not necessarily meet the qualifications for force majeure.
A Hilton Head Island woman who married in Charleston, South Carolina, in June, told FITSNews that, even though her contract has a force majeure clause, it still does not guarantee that you will get your money back.
“How the place could still host the wedding legally didn’t count,” she told us, saying that technically there were no state laws in place in South Carolina at the time of the wedding date that prevented them from hosting the wedding.
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The Hilton Head couple said they felt forced to keep the wedding date as planned, although most friends and family were unable to attend due to the COVID-19 threat.
“All of our suppliers said it was our choice to cancel, but they would keep the deposit,” she said. “That was a big reason why we maintained the marriage.”
Similar COVID wedding cancellation proceedings were filed last year across the U.S.
Recently, a Colorado couple won the case after taking the wedding venue owners to a small claims court for failing to return the wedding deposit to them.
FITSNews contacted Mackey House to comment on this story and received no response at the time of publication.
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