Perri O’Shaughnessy - Breach Of Promise

I just wish I could say I knew the right thing to do so we could all get out of here. Some of the legal stuff really goes over my head. The other night Joe and I were talking… we didn’t talk about the case, of course. I know what the judge said. But we did talk about this kind of situation in general. Joe says that women almost never get any money out of these palimony cases. I thought that was strange, I mean why not, if there’s plenty to go around.

Then I remembered how hard it is for me to wring a dime out of Joe for clothes for the kids, a night at the movies, anything. I think men are fighting a losing battle to keep women under their thumbs.

By the way, you know where that expression came from? A man used to be able to whip his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. That was perfectly legal.

I guess there’s no reason she should go off poor when Mike Markov could buy all of us, except maybe Kevin here, a few hundred times over. You notice the way he said he’d take care of her? He’d like that. He’d like her to come begging to him for the rest of her life. That’s pretty pathetic.

Cliff: Grace?

Grace Whipple: I’m fifty-four, divorced and taking care of a grown child who has some disabilities. Like Kevin, I also think I know something about this situation, but in my case it’s not because I’m rolling in the dough.

It takes a helluva lot of character to stick by someone who needs you. It’s an underrated virtue to be loyal. Not that she should be rewarded for her love, but maybe she should have some kind of compensation for giving so much of herself, so much of her life, to these enterprises that totally benefited Mike Markov. She really built something out of not much.

She’s close to my age. I like to think I’ve got a lot of years left to live. If she goes away broke, she’s got to start all over. Just imagine a woman like her out there applying for jobs. Nobody’s gonna want her. It’s not like it’s going to be a hardship for him to give up a few of those millions.

Cliff: Frank.

Frank Lister: I’m a retired biologist. I’ve been involved lately in organizing an organic food co-op. In my opinion, you have to reduce the issues here to basics. What Mike Markov is doing is simple mating behavior, finding a younger mate now that his partner is past childbearing age. Our purpose here is to procreate. We have that in common with almost any animal.

Cliff: Frank, what about your vote?

Frank: The most rational approach is to look to the law. In this case, I don’t think there’s any question. She shouldn’t get anything. The law doesn’t support it.

Cliff: Um, Diane?

Diane Miklos: I’m thirty-nine and I’m a professional climber. And I…

Bob: Somebody pays you to climb?

Diane: I raise money from sponsors, like outdoor clothing stores, camping gear manufacturers. Then I take the gear with me and photograph it while I’m climbing. They use the photos in their ads. I do slide shows and get people to contribute. My goal is to be the oldest woman to climb the seven summits, which are the seven highest peaks. So far, I’ve done three.

Woman: (very softly) Better move fast Di, because if you’re thirty-nine I’m the queen of Sheba.

Diane: What we have here is a typical situation. Like that black lawyer, Reynolds, kept saying, “He’s a chiseler.” That bastard Mike oppressed Lindy Markov for years. First, he chained her to him. Then, when he got what he wanted out of her, he dumped her.

She should have protected herself better. She counted on him to take care of her and that was her big mistake. That leaves us to go in and even things up for her.

Cliff: Susan?

Mrs. Lim: Please, If you don’t mind, I prefer Mrs. Lim.

Cliff: Go ahead, Mrs. Lim.

Mrs. Lim: My business is selling houses. I’m a real-estate broker in addition to a realtor. Married to Mr. Lim for twenty-three years, and I have two grown children.

I voted for Lindy Markov. You know, when you’re listening carefully, you can’t help noticing how people feel up there when they are testifying. I saw her cry. I saw Mike Markov suffering, too. But what we need to look at in a case like this is very simple. We examine the evidence. The judge told us to figure out the “effect and value of the evidence,” and to decide questions of fact, so that’s what we should do.

Bob: If you look at the evidence, how can you in good conscience vote in her favor? What about the agreement?

Mrs. Lim: That’s a good example. Not all the evidence can be taken at face value. Remember in the instructions that a valid contract requires a lawful objective and sufficient consideration. The consideration must have some value. They had no money, nothing, then. She was given nothing in return for signing away all her rights for eternity.

Diane: Why would she sign a paper like that anyway unless he forced her somehow or promised her something? It doesn’t make sense.

Frank: She felt he was losing interest in her. She held on as hard as she could. See a woman alone in this society is going to suffer. They’re going to be poorer. They lose all prestige. Doesn’t mean he forced her.

Diane: That’s just ridiculous and insulting. She may have been stupid to sign, but let me remind you, she said he promised to marry her if she signed. Since he didn’t marry her, its unenforceable. Guess that means she deserves at least some of their company.

Kevin: Even if you believe she told the truth, and even if you believe that agreement wasn’t valid, it laid out the terms for both to see. How can she claim she didn’t know that was their understanding if she signed that paper?

Diane: She signed to help him deal with his insecurities. Just like every good woman since time began, she bent over backward to support someone weaker. She never took it seriously. Why should she? There was no money involved at that point.

Cliff: Sonny? Got anything to add?

Sonny: No. Let’s just get this over with.

Cliff: Okay, then. That’s all of us. I’ll keep my spiel short, so we can move on to discussion. I’m forty-five. Married for twelve years, very recently separated, unfortunately. I consider myself to be a feminist. Most of you already know, I served in the state assembly a couple of years back. I’m campaign manager for a congressman at the moment, but I’m thinking about running again this November. I spent a few years in my twenties in law school, then worked as a paralegal and decided to go into politics instead and dropped out.

Bob: Everyone knows you don’t need an education for that.

Everyone laughs.

Cliff: That’s right. So believe me, I don’t think I know more than anyone else here. We all heard the same evidence.

Like several of you, I found the arguments for Lindy’s claim very persuasive. And I agree, there does seem to be plenty of money. If we were only interested in fairness, she should get something, for sure. I support a lot of liberal causes, including equal pay for women, and even poor old affirmative action.

But here, our focus has to be the law as it stands today, not how we want it to stand. And nowhere in California law is there financial provision for a woman who is not legally married to a man. There isn’t even a reference to so-called palimony. The only exception might be on a local level, where what they call domestic partners are covered by insurers in San Francisco, and maybe some other cities.

Frank: How do you know that?

Cliff: I just knew, but to verify it, I checked some of my old books.

Mrs. Lim: Didn’t the judge say not to do any research on our own?

Cliff: I looked it up before he gave us his instructions. And anyway, as I’ve said, I didn’t find anything at all about palimony, which should tell you something about how off-the-wall her claim is.