Wildey v. Springs

• Citation: 47 F.3d 1475
• Decision Date: 14 March 1995
• Docket Number: Nos. 94-1453,94-1454,s. 94-1453
• Parties: Sharon WILDEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Richard A. SPRINGS, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Page 1475

47 F.3d 1475

63 USLW 2448

Sharon WILDEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Richard A. SPRINGS, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 94-1453, 94-1454.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Oct. 25, 1994.

Decided Jan. 20, 1995.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied March

14, 1995.

Terence E. Flynn (argued), William P. Jones, Gessler, Flynn, Fleischmann, Hughes & Socol; Joseph V. Bomba; and Mary D. Paulsen, Paulsen & Associates, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff.

Bernard J. Nussbaum (argued), Jonathan Piper, and Sanford M. Pastroff, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, Chicago, IL, for defendant.

Before CUDAHY, ESCHBACH and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges.

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge.

This case involves an appeal from a jury's determination that a woman was entitled to recover various elements of damage because her fiance broke off their engagement. The plaintiff, Sharon Wildey, brought suit under Illinois's Breach of Promise Act, 740 ILCS 15/1 et seq. (1993). She alleged that the broken engagement harmed her in several ways, and consequently sought recovery for medical expenses, lost business profits and pain and suffering. The jury returned a $178,000 verdict in her favor. The district judge remitted that amount by $60,000, concluding that the lost business profits were not fairly attributable to the broken engagement. The district judge left the remainder of the verdict intact, however. The parties now appeal, alleging various points of error. We agree with the suggestion that the case should have been dismissed because Sharon failed to provide her fiance with notice of each element specified by the statute. We therefore reverse.

I.

Sharon Wildey and Richard Springs enjoyed a relationship early in 1992. When Richard broke off the engagement at the end of April, Sharon became quite distressed. She eventually decided to sue under Illinois's Breach of Promise Act, 740 ILCS 15/1 et seq. (1993).

Sharon is an attorney in Chicago, and Richard is an Oregon cattle rancher. Introduced by a mutual friend, the two began their long-distance relationship over the telephone. After a number of telephone calls, Richard decided to visit Sharon in Chicago in January of 1992. The relationship apparently went well because Richard visited Chicago on two more occasions during January and February. The parties decided that a Florida vacation was in order.

At the end of the five-day Florida trip, the parties agreed to be married. While waiting for a plane in the Orlando airport, Sharon suggested that she and Richard consider marriage. Although Richard agreed to her suggestion, he expressed doubts about the couple's ability to overcome the practical difficulties of a long-distance relationship. Sharon wanted to stay in Chicago until her children got out of school; Richard did not intend to leave his Oregon ranch. The parties eventually decided on a "commuter-type" marriage for a five-year time period, leading to an eventual relocation for both in Florida or the Caribbean. They then flew back to Chicago, and Richard returned to Oregon.

Richard again visited Sharon later in March. Once in Chicago, he began shopping for engagement rings and eventually purchased one. When the ring was ready, Richard got down on one knee and formally proposed. The couple set a wedding date and planned a Chicago ceremony. All of these activities occurred in Chicago.

The couple spent more time together during April. Early in the month, Sharon visited Richard's ranch in Oregon. She and Richard later attended her son's wedding in Los Angeles. Afterwards, Sharon and her daughters flew to Oregon to spend several days on Richard's ranch. In another week or so, everyone flew to Chicago to spend time there. ¹

After the last weekend in Chicago, however, Richard began having second thoughts about the marriage. On a flight to Florida on April 27, 1992, Richard decided to break the engagement. He composed a letter to Sharon explaining his doubts about the marriage. He also suggested that she keep the engagement ring and some money he had placed in a Chicago bank account. Pl.Ex. 1.

Sharon responded with a letter. She stated that the broken engagement had caused her to become "extremely depressed and anxious," and she asked for financial help. Pl.Ex. 3. Richard wrote back, defending himself and writing that he felt that he had fulfilled any obligations he may have had. Pl.Ex. 2. Sharon drafted a second letter in which she apprised Richard of her intent to sue. Pl.Ex. 4.

Sharon's second letter contains the date that the parties had planned to be married. It also references several elements of damage, such as medical bills from counseling and lost income, that Sharon believed she suffered as a result of the broken engagement. Sharon further wrote that she had spoken with an attorney and intended to file suit. She also stated that she had been willing to marry Richard and gave him the option of discussing the matter with her. Sharon did not, however, include any of the dates upon which the parties had exchanged marital promises. ²

Sharon filed suit soon afterwards. She contended, among other things, that the broken engagement had occasioned large expenditures on medical care and had also caused her to lose business income. She additionally sought recovery for pain and suffering. The jury returned a verdict totaling $178,000 in Sharon's favor. Of this amount, $25,000 was awarded for past and future medical costs; $60,000 was awarded for lost business profits; and $93,000 was awarded for pain and suffering.

At Richard's request, the district court remitted the award to $118,000, concluding that lost business profits were not attributable to the broken engagement. The court affirmed the verdict as to the other elements of damage, however. The district court also refused to reverse the verdict on various other grounds that Richard suggested. It concluded that Illinois law, rather than Florida law, had properly governed the issues at trial. It also determined that the notice Sharon provided in her second letter had been adequate; "substantial compliance" with the notice provision, in the district court's view, was all that Illinois law required.

II.

Richard now appeals. We agree with the district court that Illinois law properly governs this case. We do not agree, however, with that court's notice analysis. We believe instead that the omission of the date that the parties became engaged is fatal to Sharon's claim. The plain language of the Breach of Promise Act requires that a potential plaintiff include several items in the notice that must be sent to a defendant. The date that the parties became engaged is clearly one of these items. Although the strict construction that we rely on may seem unwarranted, several factors render it appropriate in this case. First, the history behind actions for the breach of a promise to marry argues in favor of a strict construction; the strictures of the Promise Act exist because these actions were unpopular and subject to abuse. Further, the date of the engagement, though plausibly insignificant when the fact of the engagement is not disputed, was potentially dispositive here. An admission concerning the date the parties became engaged determined the place of that engagement; for reasons that will become clear in the choice-of-law analysis, this fact threatened Sharon's ability to maintain her suit. In addition, we note that Sharon is a seasoned attorney. She had consulted with counsel when she drafted the second letter. In light of these considerations, and of the clarity of the Statute's requirements, we reverse. ³

A. Breach of a Promise to Marry: An Historical Perspective

The action for the breach of a promise to marry is of antique vintage. First conceived as a creature of the English ecclesiastical courts, the action was originally used to pressure a reluctant lover into fulfilling a marital promise. W.J. Brockelbank, The Nature of the Promise to Marry--A Study in Comparative Law, 41 Ill.L.Rev. 1, 3 (1946); Michael Grossberg, Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in Nineteenth-Century America 34 (1985). The common law eventually adopted the action, however, and permitted the recovery of monetary damages. Although developed by English courts, the action found its way into the American colonies and was later used by post-revolutionary American lawyers.

The action served dual ideals in colonial America. On the one hand, a breach of promise action continued to appeal to vestiges of the older notion that marriage was a property transaction completed after complex family negotiations. Grossberg, supra, at 35. But on the other hand, the action began to pay tribute to the emerging ideal that marriage was a sacred contract premised upon affection and emotional commitment. Id. The suits soon became utilized almost universally by women, and were justified by lawmakers largely on these grounds. Id. at 37. Marriage was considered necessary to secure both a woman's social and financial security. Margaret F. Brinig, Rings and Promises, 6 J.Law, Economics, and Organization 203, 204-05 (1990). But more importantly, the actions, and the judges who were willing to enforce them, recognized that promises to marry sometimes occasioned a loss of virginity. Id. at 205. Because of the importance the society of that day placed on premarital chastity, the economic and social harm suffered by a jilted woman were often reflected in large damage awards. Id.

The actions were characterized by a lack of legal formality peculiar for the law of that time. Foreign observers noted that, unlike wills or commercial contracts, little was needed to support an allegation that the parties had become engaged. Grossberg, supra, at 51. Consequently, appellate courts deferred widely to jury determinations in credibility contests. Id. at 49. Traditional rules relating to damages, too, were relaxed. Despite the originally...