It seems that with the emergence of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, people are outta control and just can’t seem to stay outta trouble online!
[FLASHBACK: Facebook Fail! Woman Faces Jail After Impersonating Ex-Boyfriend Online… ]
Now comes a former headmaster of a pricey Florida prep school who recently lost his discrimination lawsuit against his former employer after his ‘social media sharing’ daughter decided to brag about his $80,000 ‘win’ on Facebook.
Sad thing is… there was a confidentiality order in place and the youngster’s facebook post basically VOIDED her father’s settlement.
Details about the costly Facebook fail below…
Snay, now 69, claimed the $30,000- a-year school discriminated against him based on his age and that they also retaliated against his daughter Dana, who was then a student at the school.
According to CNN, Snay and his former employer came to an agreement November 2011, in which Snay would be paid $10,000 in back pay, and an $80,000 settlement. Gulliver Schools also agreed to pay Snay’s attorney fees in the amount of $60,000.
But wait…? before the ink could dry on the deal, Snay’s daughter, Dana, took to Facebook, to boast about her dad’s victory, stating,
“Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.”
School officials got wind of the social media message and it only took a few days for Gulliver Schools to contact Snay’s attorneys stating that Snay had broken their confidentiality agreement and that he would NOT be receiving the $80,000 settlement.
The agreement stated that neither Snay nor his wife could speak about the settlement to anyone except for his attorneys and other professional advisers.
Snay filed a motion to enforce the settlement and won in a Circuit Court ruling. The school appealed.
A hearing was held to determine if his daughter’s knowledge of the settlement and her Facebook post had violated the confidentiality agreement and Snay explained:
“What happened is that after settlement, my wife and I went in the parking lot, and we had to make some decisions on what we were going to tell my daughter. Because it’s very important to understand that she was an intricate part of what was happening.
“She was retaliated against at Gulliver. So she knew we were going to some sort of mediation. She was very concerned about it. Because of what happened at Gulliver, she had quite a few psychological scars which forced me to put her into therapy. “So there was a period of time that there was an unresolved enclosure for my wife and me. It was very important with her. We understood the confidentiality. So we knew what the restrictions were, yet we needed to tell her something,” Snay explained in court documents.
The Third District Court of Appeals for the State of Florida agreed with Gulliver School and ruled that Snay had, in fact, violated confidentiality, so they reversed the Circuit Court ruling, stating:
“Snay violated the agreement by doing exactly what he had promised not to do. His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent, advertising to the Gulliver community that Snay had been successful in his age discrimination and retaliation case against the school.
“Based on the clear and unambiguous language of the parties’ agreement and Snay’s testimony confirming his breach of its terms, we reverse the order entered below granting the Snays’ motion to enforce the agreement.”
Easy come… easy go.
According to CNN, Snay is now the headmaster at Riviera Preparatory School in Coral Gables, Florida.
How would you deal with this loss?