Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

COURT

‘Pay back jilted bride’: top court tells groom

Italy's Court of Cassation has ruled that a man who backed out of his wedding at the last-minute must cover the wedding costs incurred by his jilted ex.

Published: 19 October 2015 13:46 CEST
'Pay back jilted bride': top court tells groom
Italy's Court of Cassation found that a secret lover was not a good enough reason to break off a wedding at the last minute. Photo: Cary Bass-Deschness/Flic

The man has been told to pay the woman back €16,500, finally bringing an end to a 16-year legal wrangle.

The scorned bride was unceremoniously jilted a week before the pair – who had been together for 11 years – was due to marry in 1999 after her fiancé revealed he had begun a relationship with another woman, La Repubbilca reported.

The bride then decided to take legal action against her ex, citing the expenses she had incurred leading up to the wedding.

Initially, her claims were rejected by a court in Prato, Tuscany, but a court of appeal in Florence decided she deserved to be reimbursed for some of her wedding expenses.

However, the cheating groom decided to appeal the decision.

But Italy's top court ruled that the man's failure to provide a valid reason for calling off the marriage so late in the day, and after the event had been so widely publicized, meant that he was liable for some of  the costs the now 46-year-old ex-fiancée had incurred.

In its statement the court said it had “examined completely the testimonies and did not find a valid reason for the husband not fulfilling his promise of marriage.”

The court ordered the man to reimburse his ex for “money spent on her wedding dress, as well as the restoration of what was supposed to be their connubial home.”

The man was also ordered to pay €5,200 in legal fees.  

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

COURT

French court orders Twitter to reveal anti-hate speech efforts

A French court has ordered Twitter to give activists full access to all its documents relating to efforts to combat racism, sexism and other forms of hate speech on the social network.

Published: 7 July 2021 10:03 CEST
French court orders Twitter to reveal anti-hate speech efforts
Photo: Alastair Pike | AFP

Six anti-discrimination groups had taken Twitter to court in France last year, accusing the US social media giant of “long-term and persistent” failures in blocking hateful comments from the site.

The Paris court ordered Twitter to grant the campaign groups full access to all documents relating to the company’s efforts to combat hate speech since May 2020. The ruling applies to Twitter’s global operation, not just France.

Twitter must hand over “all administrative, contractual, technical or commercial documents” detailing the resources it has assigned to fighting homophobic, racist and sexist discourse on the site, as well as “condoning crimes against humanity”.

The San Francisco-based company was given two months to comply with the ruling, which also said it must reveal how many moderators it employs in France to examine posts flagged as hateful, and data on the posts they process.

The ruling was welcomed by the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF), one of the groups that had taken the social media giant to court.

“Twitter will finally have to take responsibility, stop equivocating and put ethics before profit and international expansion,” the UEJF said in a statement on its website.

Twitter’s hateful conduct policy bans users from promoting violence, or threatening or attacking people based on their race, religion, gender identity or disability, among other forms of discrimination.

Like other social media businesses it allows users to report posts they believe are hateful, and employs moderators to vet the content.

But anti-discrimination groups have long complained that holes in the policy allow hateful comments to stay online in many cases.

French prosecutors on Tuesday said they have opened an investigation into a wave of racist comments posted on Twitter aimed at members of the country’s national football team.

The comments, notably targeting Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe, were posted after France was eliminated from the Euro 2020 tournament last week.

France has also been having a wider public debate over how to balance the right to free speech with preventing hate speech, in the wake of the controversial case of a teenager known as Mila.

The 18-year-old sparked a furore last year when her videos, criticising Islam in vulgar terms, went viral on social media.

Thirteen people are on trial accused of subjecting her to such vicious harassment that she was forced to leave school and was placed under police protection.

While President Emmanuel Macron is among those who have defended her right to blaspheme, left-wing critics say her original remarks amounted to hate speech against Muslims.

SHOW COMMENTS