Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190491
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Nine months ago, her fiance left her waiting at the altar, and now she wants to make him pay.
In a suit filed in Albemarle County Circuit Court, Loose seeks $75,000 from Jeffrey Scott Sprouse, her ex-fiance.
She wants $10,000 for invitations, caterers, clothes and a 250-person reception. And in her suit filed last month the 22-year-old saleswoman asked for $15,000 for legal fees and other costs and $50,000 for emotional damage and distress.
"I loved him very much," Loose said Monday. "The money won't heal the hurt he's caused me. But it's not right that my parents should have to pay for that whole wedding either."
Loose and Sprouse, 25, dated for more than four years when they decided to get married last year.
Planning the July 25 wedding, the couple agreed Loose would order flowers, food, invitations and other items, and Sprouse would reimburse her for half of the costs, her suit said.
Sprouse said Monday he agreed to pay only for the rehearsal dinner, which cost about $900.
The couple had a fight the Sunday before the Wednesday wedding, they said.
Sprouse said he told Loose then that he would not marry her. Loose said they subsequently made up and got their marriage license Monday.
"Even after we got the marriage license, I told her it was off," Sprouse said. "I called my family and all my guests Tuesday and told them not to come to the church. I never said I would come and never intended to show up."
Loose said Sprouse called her the day before the wedding and said he might not show up. "But I kept hoping he would," she said. "You just don't think things like this would happen to you."
Loose, her family and 250 guests went to the church for the 7 p.m. wedding. When Sprouse did not show up by 7:30, Loose decided she should tell everyone the wedding was off.
"I was six months pregnant with his baby at the time," said Loose, who had a boy in November. "I had to go into the church in front of all those people and tell everyone I'd been jilted. But it was my job. I had to do it."
Since the food and wedding cake already had been delivered to a local country club for the reception, Loose said she decided to go ahead and have the party. She cut the wedding cake alone.
"We couldn't take it all back," Loose said. "It already had been paid for, and a lot of people had come from Florida and other places far away to see this wedding."
Sprouse said he had given Loose enough time to cancel the arrangements, and that she told him she would have the wedding without him.
In her suit, Loose charges Sprouse with intentional breach of contract, fraud and deceit and intentional inflicted emotional distress.
"The groom obligated himself, then got cold feet and ran," Loose's attorney, Benjamin Dick of Charlottesville, said.
"This case is without merit," said Sprouse's attorney, Terri Welch.
Attorneys said the case will probably be heard in July.
by CNB