Weekend Frivolity: Students Can Do Stuff!

Christine Farley shared with us the movie poster at right.  You may be thinking, "Wait a tick, I don't remember that movie poster.  Nor do I remember that movie!"  Or you may be thinking, "I don't even remember that case."  Well, I didn't know the case either, but after seeing the poster, I really wanted to see the movie,  I then learned that the poster was just something Professor Farley's students created and not an actual movie.  I decided that reading the case would be the next best thing.

It seems that it is a more up-to-date and same-sex version of Marvin v. Marvin and Hewitt v. Hewitt,  We once called these "palimony" cases, but I don't know what they are called now.  In Mitchell v. Moore, Mitchell moved from South Carolina to Pennsylvania to be with Moore.  He also worked on Moore's farm.  Moore made various representations relating to compensation for labor, devise of property, and return of contributions to an antique business and a property on Amelia Island Florida.  After thirteen years, the relationship ended, and Mitchell sought to enforce Moore's pledges.  

A jury found for Mitchell based on unjust enrichment and awarded $130,000.  As in Marvin, the court found that the benefits that Mitchell derived from his ability to live rent-free on Moore's property more than compensated for the lack of wages paid.  Moreover, Moore's promise to leave his property to Mitchell was a gratuitous statement of future intentions.  The court does not address the antique business or the Florida property.  Perhaps a sub-plot in the movie?