Court Forces a Store to Return Wedding Dress Advance Due to Wedding Cancellation

A judge has forced a store to return the money a customer paid as an advance on her wedding dress. The wedding was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Court of First Instance number 8 of the city of Valladolid in Spain has ordered a store to return all the money that one of its clients gave as an advance to produce a wedding dress.

The judge has upheld the client's lawsuit against the establishment hired to make her wedding dress. The client was forced to cancel the event that was scheduled for August 2020.

She filed the lawsuit in court after the store refused to reimburse the 1,050 euros she paid as an advance at the time of contracting the creation of the garment in December 2019.

In March 2020, the bride informed the store that the wedding would not take place on the scheduled date due to the pandemic. She requested that they return the advance she paid while ordering her dress.

NEGATIVE AND DEMAND

The woman asked the store to reimburse her advance and offered to pay the store for expenses incurred by canceling the dress's production. The store refused to return the money even though they knew there would no longer be a wedding.

The store claimed that they could not return the money because the dress was already made and the boutique had already paid the designer of the dress to make it. The bride-to-be did not accept the store's argument and decided to sue them.

NO PROOF

The woman presented the lawsuit before the judge, who, after listening to the allegations and reviewing the evidence presented by both parties, reached a decision. The judge agreed with the young woman and ordered the store to return the entire amount she paid.

The judge noted that the store stated they could not return the money because they could not cancel the order of the dress. However, while they claimed the dress was already made and they had paid the designer, they did not present any proof of it.

NON-APPEALABLE JUDGMENT

This is why the store must return the 1,050 euros paid to them by the woman. In addition, the judge also exonerated the woman from paying the balance of the dress, which was what the store requested.

The sentence handed down by the judge, in this case, is final and cannot be appealed. The store failed to present proof that the dress was indeed made and paid for, which is why it lost the case.

SUSPENDED CELEBRATIONS

This woman's wedding is not the only one that has been canceled or postponed since the pandemic was declared. Throughout the year 2020, social networks were filled with notes of the cancellation of weddings, birthdays, graduations, and all kinds of events and shows.

People had to reinvent and find new ways to celebrate special moments while protecting themselves from contracting Covid-19. Some of such alternatives have been holding virtual events and making home deliveries.