Thanks to my lovely Mum for pointing me to the crazy case of Leroy Greer, who is suing 1-800-flowers.com for giving his wife information about the long-stemmed roses which he had sent to his mistress months earlier.
Greer alleges that he ordered the roses for his mistress via the online florist, and that they agreed to keep the records of the transaction private, with no record of the transaction to be mailed to his home or office. Some months later, the florist sent a “Thank You” card to Greer’s home, thanking him for using their services. His suspicious wife called the florists, asking for information about when he had bought flowers from them. They faxed her through the order (including details of the mistress) and she subsequently filed for divorce. Abovethelaw.com has a copy of the order which the florists faxed to the wife, including an interesting handwritten annotation, presumably written by said ex-wife.
What a rat fink. It’s his own fault if he had an affair: he should wear the consequences.
(via Abovethelaw.com)
The Legal Soapbox 
the comments at that abovethelaw link are hilarious
lesson – always get secretary to book the flowers
anything else?
I need to jump on this lawsuit bandwagon.
First, I’ll sue the makers of Adderall for not tracking me down when I was younger. There’s no telling how many stupid things I’ve said or done that could have easily been prevented.
Second, I think I’ll sue the Bush Administration for insulting my intelligence on a daily basis for the past 6 1/2 years. The amount of damage to my self-esteem is immeasurable.
Third, I think I’ll sue the Lottery because it’s too damn hard to pick the winning number. It’s simply unfair. They should be required to at least give people a hint or something.
That’s enough for now, but I’m sure I can think of more. Maybe I’ll sue God for giving me a conscience. Damn you conscience!
I’m going to go against the tide, here, but I’m with Leroy on this. It’s like the nutty cakes (Jarvis v Swan Tours) so far as confidentiality in delivering flowers is what he stipulated for.
It is, however, conceivable that the contract could be void as being contrary to public policy and there may well be problems with causation and making out the proper quantum of damages.
Btw, you were probably thinking of privacy infringement as a tort, but I think you should be tagging this as contract law.
He sent her long-stemmed roses (tack-o-rama) AND added a plush toy to go with it (ewwww)?!
Personally, I think the wife’s better off without someone with such appalling crass taste.
Marcellous, yes, I was thinking about it on the way home, and I agree, it is really a breach of contract case, not a tort case.
In that case, he’ll have to be able to prove the terms of the contract (I wonder, was it oral or was it written?) I also wonder what damages he is seeking. Can he seek the costs of his divorce, or would the rules against remoteness of contractual damages prevent it? Personally, I’d be inclined to think it would be too remote casually. The cause of the divorce was his affair.
I suppose he’d argue that “but for” the disclosure of the flowers to the mistress, his wife wouldn’t have divorced him, but it sounds like they had difficulties anyway.
Will add another tag: Contract
This would have been a much more stimulating case to illustrate contract law back in Form V Legal Studies than Donoghue vs Stevenson. Oh, and if there was a snail in the flowers, even better.
And then the mistress screamed when she saw the snail, and she fell over and hit her head but unfortunately she had an “eggshell skull” and suffered serious injury, as well as psychological damage because of her severe phobia of snails, and then, and then….