Say you’re a widow with $125,000 to invest. You could stash it in a CD, you could play the stock market, you could add to your portfolio. All of those options are a bit tame and the rate of return may be unsatisfying. What to do? What to do? Hmmm. Maybe you could use it to bait yourself a millionare…. Eureka!
But, you know, there are risks to that venture, just as there are always risks of losing your investment. How to safeguard the investment? Hmmm. Well, if you can’t get the money you want out of marriage, you can always sue the matchmaker.
"A widow won $2.1 million from a high-priced matchmaker whom she claimed failed to deliver on promises of introductions to cultured, wealthy men.
"Anne Majerik, a 60-year-old social worker from Erie, Pa., claimed in a lawsuit that she paid Beverly Hills matchmaker Orly Hadida $125,000 to be introduced to men who wanted monogamous relationships, earned more than $1 million and had estates of up to $20 million.
"Instead, she said, she only got a few introductions to inappropriate men. For example, her suit claimed, the matchmaker’s ‘international banker’ turned out to be ‘an interpreter that worked in a bank.’"
Amazingly enough, the jury foreperson Christie Troutt said of the award:
"We wanted to punish the defendant, but in the amount we wanted to punish the defendant, we didn’t want to reward the plaintiff. They were both wrong."
How, pray tell, does it not reward the plaintiff to turn her $125,000 investment into a cool $2.1 million, and without even the hassle of hammering out a prenup with her intended prey?
