Woman sues cellular company over bill, says it ruined her marriage

[Ben Lahnger]

Woman sues Rogers over cellphone bill, says it ruined her marriage
Husband left her after discovering an affair with the help of an invoice, suit alleges

SOURCE

Last updated on Tuesday, May. 18, 2010 11:05AM EDT

A Toronto mother who says her marriage fell apart because her Rogers cellphone bill exposed her extramarital affair is suing Canada's largest cellphone provider.

But Rogers argues Gabriella Nagy can't blame its billing practices for the breakdown of her marriage.

In documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ms. Nagy seeks $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract.

The July, 2007, Rogers invoice ruined her life, Ms. Nagy’s suit alleges.

“As a consequence of her husband's said departure, the plaintiff wept uncontrollably at her workplace, did so in the presence of other employees, distracted them, was unfocused and became incapable of performing her employment duties,” the statement of claim says.

“The plaintiff continued to attempt to resume normal job functioning but was unsuccessful, and on Oct. 10, 2007, she was terminated.”

Ms. Nagy's bill was being sent in her name until her husband signed up for Rogers Internet and home phone. Those services, along with Ms. Nagy's cellphone, were bundled into one bill, and that new invoice was addressed to her husband, the suit alleges.

The invoice mailed to her then-husband contained details of her outgoing cellphone calls, the suit, filed in January, 2009, says.

Ms. Nagy's husband figured out from the phone bill that she was having an affair. He left her and the children in August, 2007.

The suit further alleges that after Ms. Nagy broke off the affair, her former lover harassed her and her husband, destroying any chance of a reconciliation.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Rogers denies it breached Ms. Nagy's privacy and says there are no legal grounds for her claims.

“The marriage breakup apparently resulted from the fact the plaintiff was having an extramarital affair, a fact admitted in the statement of claim,” the company’s statement of defence reads.

“Rogers is not responsible for the plaintiff's affair or its consequences.”

The communications giant is asking the court to dismiss the suit.

Ms. Nagy's suit says she continues to suffer “emotional and psychological distress” and is being treated by a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

Ben- Wow! What a loser! The cell phone company are bad for sending a detailed bill to her home! The former lover is bad for harassing her after the breakup. I'm surprised she didn't sue the employer for wrongful termination, since she was obviously such a victim ... or maybe she should sue her husband for not recognizing she had special needs. And she's suing for $600,000! Fuck, what a trip!

[Solumina]

Dear god some people are special

[triggerhappi26]

That's just hilarious nothing sticks to that woman everything that goes wrong in her life is someone elses fault. How sad.

[d0p3y]

o sure sue the tabacco company for givin you cancer. Hypocrits.

[Apathy's_Child]

This reminds me of the woman who sued McDonalds because she spilled her hot coffee over herself while driving away. Depressingly, I seem to remember that she won.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

This reminds me of the woman who sued McDonalds because she spilled her hot coffee over herself while driving away. Depressingly, I seem to remember that she won.

Thats actually not as crazy as it sounds. In law school it is a case you learn about early on when first studying tort law.

Here is why that case is different.

McDonalds looked at many complaints involving cold coffee over the years. Their idea to remedy this was to have custom coffee makers built with warmers under the pot that keep the coffee about 30 degrees hotter than normal coffee. This way when you get it at the drive through you have another 30 minutes to get it to your home or office and if it cooled down at the normal rate you still would have coffee that is piping hot when you arrived at your destination.

The only problem was that coffee served at that temperature is dangerous. We are not talking just a simple burn, we are talking third degree, permanent loss of feeling, loss of nerve function, burn the skin off your body hot.

And that is what led to the lawsuit.

A lady dropped the coffee in her lap while putting the cup in the car at a drive through. She had to be taken via ambulance to the hospital, recievied extensive burns with permanent scarring, permanent total loss of feeling in the area the coffee hit (in and around her inner thighs, and nerve damage so even her ability to walk straight was effected.

McDonalds never put any warnings on their coffee to alert people to the fact their coffee was much hotter than normal coffee and that drinking it or being exposed to it right after it is served can cause severe injuries.

They have since abandoned that practice and put the warning on all hot products, and yes, she got a seven figure pay out for the permanent damage she had to endure, but when you know the whole story it doesn't seem so whacky now does it?

[Corpsey]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

Thats actually not as crazy as it sounds. In law school it is a case you learn about early on when first studying tort law.

Here is why that case is different.

McDonalds looked at many complaints involving cold coffee over the years. Their idea to remedy this was to have custom coffee makers built with warmers under the pot that keep the coffee about 30 degrees hotter than normal coffee. This way when you get it at the drive through you have another 30 minutes to get it to your home or office and if it cooled down at the normal rate you still would have coffee that is piping hot when you arrived at your destination.

The only problem was that coffee served at that temperature is dangerous. We are not talking just a simple burn, we are talking third degree, permanent loss of feeling, loss of nerve function, burn the skin off your body hot.

And that is what led to the lawsuit.

A lady dropped the coffee in her lap while putting the cup in the car at a drive through. She had to be taken via ambulance to the hospital, recievied extensive burns with permanent scarring, permanent total loss of feeling in the area the coffee hit (in and around her inner thighs, and nerve damage so even her ability to walk straight was effected.

McDonalds never put any warnings on their coffee to alert people to the fact their coffee was much hotter than normal coffee and that drinking it or being exposed to it right after it is served can cause severe injuries.

They have since abandoned that practice and put the warning on all hot products, and yes, she got a seven figure pay out for the permanent damage she had to endure, but when you know the whole story it doesn't seem so whacky now does it?

Just when you think you have a story figured, someone goes and posts a message like this.

I find this thoroughly interesting.

[Saya]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, I used to work for Rogers. They couldn't have bundled his internet bill with her cellphone bill without her permission, its a bit of a lengthy process too, or it was back then, so I can't see anyone doing it for shits and giggles or conspiring to destroy her marriage. Even if it was the case she would have had to have requested detailed billing, Rogers didn't offer it automatically then to cut down on the amount of paper being printed, you had to ask for it.

I mean, other than the total insanity of trying to absolve herself of her personal responsibility, thats why its funny.

I remember while I was working there a girl once called and we couldn't give them the time and dates of calls, but if they guessed it we could say yes or no, so this one girl who paid for her boyfriend's cell and had it in her name called and asked "did this cell call this number on Valentine's Day?" And I had to say yes, and she asked for that number on different days, and just got more and more choked up, I felt so bad.

More fun was when people called in angry at their spouse or child for ordering porno on demand, one dad called in and demanded to know the names of the movies. Most of them I had to say "Sir, this one has a swear in it and I'm not allowed to say it." Some wives put an alert on their account, since they had PPV blocked the only way to order a movie is to call, so there would be an alert that says something like IF LARRY CALLS TO ORDER AN ADULT PPV DON'T LET HIM.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

They have since abandoned that practice and put the warning on all hot products, and yes, she got a seven figure pay out for the permanent damage she had to endure, but when you know the whole story it doesn't seem so whacky now does it?

That's not the whole story. Actually, a judge reduced the payout on that ruling so she didn't get millions. But this isn't the McDonald's lawsuit thread so I'm not going to run down the list of other details I know that would make it look whacky again.

To be clear, having an affair and then being clumsy in not covering your tracks and then blaming others for when you get caught is not the same as ordering hot coffee and then being clumsy in removing the lid to add condiments and spilling the hot beverage on yourself and then blaming others for when you get burned.

[retribution]

I do see that they shouldn't have sent him it. I would of been pissed to. But she does need to quit blaming others.

[Apathy's_Child]

Yo, Sternn - by "that temperature", do you mean........ boiling, perchance?

Well smack my ass, that changes everything. You cain't jus' go around serving people coffee so hot you'd think it was made from water that's been BOILED!