A Florida court threw out an $80,000 settlement because of the plaintiff’s daughter’s Facebook post.
The father had sued his former employer, Gulliver Preparatory School, for age discrimination. The parties ultimately reached an agreement to settle the matter. However, after the settlement, the plaintiff’s daughter bragged to her 1,200 Facebook friends: “Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver,” she wrote. “Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer.”
As reported by the Miami Herald, when the school learned about the post, it refused to pay, and an appellate court found that the post violated the terms of a confidential settlement agreement.
This case provides an extreme example of the dangers of social media in the context of litigation.