A Florida teen’s Facebook post about her father’s $80,000 lawsuit victory could end up costing the family all of it.
After Dana Snay found out her father, Patrick Snay, won his age-discrimination lawsuit against Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami where he was a former headmaster, she immediately took to Facebook to publicly announce the victory.
“Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver,” Snay told her 1,200 Facebook friends, which included former classmates. “Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.”
Her social media indiscretion may have cost the family said vacation, along with every cent of the settlement. When the school found out about the former student’s post four days later, it gave Gulliver legal grounds to refuse paying anything, since Patrick Snay signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement.
Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal sided with the school last Wednesday according to a Miami Herald report, and tossed out the settlement, leaving the Snays with nothing.
“Snay violated the agreement by doing exactly what he had promised not to do,” Judge Linda Ann Wells wrote in her ruling. “His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent.”
The case began in 2010 after Gulliver declined to renew the 69-year-old Snay’s tenure after years of employment with the school. Gulliver opted to settle and agreed to pay Snay $10,000 in back wages, $60,000 in legal fees along with an $80,000 lump settlement.
Initally Snay won a ruling to reinforce the original settlement, but Gulliver’s attorney’s won a subsequent appeal. Now the former headmaster has only the Florida Supreme Court left to appeal to – a move that will likely rack up more and more legal fees eating into the original settlement, not to mention Dana Snay’s hypothetical European vacation.
The Snay’s have not publicly commented on whether or not they will continue to fight the case.