A daughter cost her father $80,000 when a judge reversed a discrimination lawsuit settlement after the daughter bragged about it on Facebook, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.
Patrick Snay, the former headmaster of Gulliver Preparatory School in Florida, won an age discrimination lawsuit against Gulliver school in November 2011. Snay, 69, was awarded $80,000, under the condition that he adheres to a confidentiality agreement.
But Dana Snay, Patrick Snay's daughter who attended Gulliver at the time of the lawsuit, wrote a Facebook comment clearly referencing the case.
"Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver," Dana Snay wrote, according to the Miami Herald. "Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT."
Dana Snay's comment was seen by her 1,200 Facebook friends, most of whom went to or graduated from Gulliver. The school's attorneys found out about the comment, who then told Patrick Snay that the terms of the confidentiality agreement were violated.
Judge Linda Ann Wells from the Third District Court of Appeal overturned the verdict on Wednesday.
"Snay violated the agreement by doing exactly what he had promised not to do," Wells wrote, the Miami Herald reported. "His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent."
Patrick first brought the lawsuit against Gulliver in 2010 when his contract as headmaster expired. Gulliver chose not to renew Patrick's contract after years of working at the school, according to the Miami Herald.
The case was settled a year later, with Gulliver paying $10,000 in back wages, $60,000 for attorney fees, and $80,000 to Patrick.
Patrick and his wife were ordered to keep "terms and existence" of the agreement confidential. But Patrick told his daughter anyway, claiming she needed to know because she endured "psychological scars" when she attended Gulliver, the Miami Herald reported.
"We knew what the restrictions were, yet we needed to tell her something," Gulliver said, the Miami Herald reported.
Patrick, who is now the headmaster at Riviera Preparatory Academy in Coral Gables, has the option of filing for an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court.
