I presume that her legal justification, ridiculous or not, is that because the flowers clashed with the linens, she was not only deprived the value of the flowers but of every single bit of decor in the room.
Fortunately for them our system of justice doesn’t involve random people with sketchy facts judging allegations. [ETA: actually, I guess our system *does *do this, but not in the sarcastic way intended here. :)]
Why not? How much do you think the entire wedding cost? How much is getting a once-in-a-lifetime event just right worth?
Indeed. It is also my choice to think she is a bozo for investing in dead inedible plant life instead of a nice no-load index fund.
From the article linked in the OP:
If I’d spent almost 30k, or any amount, on flowers I would be furious if they were “wilted and brown”. And that’s not even getting into the allegations that cheaper substitutions had been made.
Assuming this is true and not she’s telling the truth about the condition of the flowers, then the $4000 refund originally requested (that the the florists repeatedly ignored) seems more than reasonable. $400,000 seems crazy high to me, but if the florist deliberately cheated her, provided undisplayable flowers, then ignored her requests for a partial refund, then he deserves to sweat a little.
Weddings are a high-emotion, special occasion event for many people, and I don’t know whether that affects the damages. If I make a reservation for a restaurant and they misplace it, that’s annoying. But if I spend $60,000 to book the place for my 200-head wedding reception, the venue forgets the booking, all other comparable venues are filled with diners, and I have to take my formally-dressed guests to McDonalds, a straight refund doesn’t seem adequate.
All I can say is thank GOD nobody lost the groom’s pants, or we’d be talking BILLIONS!
Wish I had $27,000 to spend on flowers. I wouldn’t, of course, I’d spend it on drugs and lewd companions. Still, wish I had it.
I think we see part of the problem here. She wanted plants where were still early in the process of dying rather than already dead.
Or a twice-in-a-lifetime event.
But would you sue your dealer if the lewd companions were wilted?
I totally agree. There aren’t enough facts to decide if she’s pitworthy or not. If they really gave her lousy flowers and then ignored repeated requests for a refund on the order of 10 or 15 percent, I agree that the florist deserves to sweat.
Unfortunately, New York’s rules of procedure usually require you to put a dollar amount on the summons and putting down a lower dollar amount has the potential to limit the claim. So to be on the safe side, a lot of people err on the side of high.
As far as her ethnicity goes, yeah, seeing that she’s an attorney in New York, there’s a very good chance that she’s Jewish. Are Jewish people more willing to stand up for their rights? Are they more likely to file sketchy lawsuits? Are they more likely to bring their disputes to court? It’s possible.
I don’t know if the OP waS implying anything about her ethnicity, but the article TokyoPlayer linked to certainly wasn’t too subtle about it…it came right out and called her a “jewish lawyer.”
The real test will come if the Defendant offers a refund.
Depends where he puts it 
(IIRC, one of the anti-semitic aspects of the Leo Frank lynching in Atlanta was that he’d performed cunninlingus on prostitutes with his nose; resulting in White Southern Manhood’s admission that it was as threatened by Jewish noses as much as it was by Negro penises)
We had a similar thing at our wedding reception, the frosting flowers on the cake didn’t match our real flowers. My wife was beside herself.
Then, our reception was robbed and the fuckers stole all the money people had left and some gifts too.
Kind of put the flower disaster into perspective.
Truthfully it was that link which prompted my ire. As it was misdirected at the OP, I apologize.
What planet are you from? You’d sue the pimp of course!
You don’t have one-stop shopping? I forget how behind the times the States are.
Well sure, but you can’t get Cristal at Walmart.
You have to go to Tar-ghey for that.
I’m generally pretty down on the concept of suing someone everytime there’s a mistake or you don’t get your way. But in this case, I think I would have to see pictures of the event to see how bad it looked. I remember when I was looking around for a place to have my reception, I saw a banquet room with burgundy decor (chairs, carpet, curtains…everything was burgundy). The wedding that they were setting up at the time was all in peach (table cloths, napkins, etc.) It looked…awful. I mean, I really kind of felt sorry for the bride, because I imagine when she planned everything, she didn’t think about her colors clashing with the room. (I’m not really fussy about that kind of stuff, but it taught me a lesson…I tried to find the most neutral room I could, and then used a relatively neutral color scheme, as well. Something I might not have thought of if I hadn’t seen what can go wrong!) If there were enough flowers to make it into that kind of an effect, it might seem to be well worth suing over.
Then again, I can imagine that anyone who thinks it’s worth $27 grand to get a certain color of wedding flowers might be extremely hard to please, as well, perhaps unreasonably so.
Good lord. If she had a contract that was violated, then heck, sue away.
This fancy wedding stuff is for the birds. It’s a world I don’t understand.
Bing!!!
Me, I figured the OP was putting 2 and 2 together and getting 4 for other-than-mathematical reasons, if ya follow me.
Not that a lot of us wouldn’t have jumped to the same conclusion. Stereotypes aren’t stereotypes without some basis in reality. But one really oughtn’t to go around jerking a thumb and going “nyaaah, see?” That’s a bright line, I would think.
For the record, Ms. Elbogen-Glatt’s breathing apparatus appears comparatively svelte, whatever else one might say about her.
On top of that, “Elana” is a vividly Hebrew name (unlike “Elena,” which it’s often mistaken for).