Bridgeport SC was on People's Court

[Mazurka Girl]

I saw this episode yesterday afternoon. They sued a parent for breach of contract who signed up for a season of ice. His daughter attended for three or four weeks, at which point he decided she was too tired to skate on that day due to her other extra curricular activities. The skating club offered to switch her to their other day, but they were not interested in that day either. So the father stopped payment on the check.

Of course, reason prevailed & the judge (I can't remember her name) pointed out that since the skating club entered into the contract with him in good faith it should not lose money & have to subsidize his daughter's ice time because he made a bad decision & later had to change it.

Good decision! Where do parents & skaters think the money comes from to pay the ice bills when they want to make changes like this after the season has started? It was unfair for the parent to say they didn't care about his kid because they wouldn't let him rescind the contract & were trying to make him pay. He did the right thing for his daughter once he realized there was a problem, but it was his responsibility to spend the time needed to make a better decision up front; & not expect the club to subsidize his bad choice at the expense of their other programs & skaters.

I don't know anyone from this skating club, but they did a very good job explaining how the skating club is structured & operated. I'm glad they got their judgement.

[jp1andOnly]

Most skating clubs have a contract similar to the one you saw on the case. Most clubs will allow a skater to switch days, times etc if there becomes a problem and if the session the skater wishes to skate on isn't full. Some clubs may even allow the skater to use the ice team in an off season time if the skater is a regular home club member.

Many clubs are now stating that money is non refundable except in case of emergency. Injuries are not emergencies and either is teams breaking up.

I know my family had to pay for fall skating at a club when the skaters in our family didn't attend. Basically the fall session was paid for but due to conflicts of interest between coaches and our family we had to switch off season schools. Of course asking for the money back was an option but we probably wouldn't have got it back so we just paid for it. And paid for fall skating at another club that we did skate at. Whew..that was an expensive fall

[ceceB]

I saw that one too. I always watch people court, I love judge Milian.:D
I think the dad did do the right thing, unfortunately, someone had to eat the bill and it wasn't fair for the club to.

He mentioned the club his daughter was now skating at, but I forget what it was.

[Ryan O]

Hey good observation and summary of the case!:) I saw that case last week too. I just got into law school and am starting law school this fall, so as a soon to be law student, I watch many of the small claims court cases to learn more about the legal system. The skating club mentioned it was a member of the USFSA during the case, and as a skating viewer it was kind of interesting to all of a sudden see a court case come along involving a skating club. Yes, the judge's name is Marilyn Milian. She is the first Hispanic judge to be on The People's Court. She lives in Florida with her husband who is also an attorney and she has 3 young girls. She is a good judge--tough but fair, and she is not as abrasive as Judge Judy can be.:)

[ceceB]

Good for you Ryan! I agree with you about Judge Milian. I love how she plays psychologist sometimes, trying to make sure people learn from their mistakes.