Legal memorandum format and structure

Legal Memorandum

Clara and Charles are seeking to file a lawsuit against the former fiance of Clara, Derek, to whom they accuse of breaching the marriage contract before the execution of the agreement. According to Clara, she and her father Clark have suffered from serious financial and emotional damages because of the ignorant and irresponsible attitude of Derek. Clara claims that she has extensively spent money for the preparation of their wedding and was emotionally involved in the whole business. However, the act of deceit by Derek has not only brought her to damages through financial as well as emotional means but she has suffered from humiliation and embarrassment within her social circle and the sole responsibility of this degradation is on Derek. In addition to this, there is another party who has similar charges against Derek, Clara's father Charles.

Charles accuses Derek of bringing financial losses to him and deceiving him as well as his family. As Charles was fully involved in the overall marriage issue, he was also hurt emotionally because of the irresponsible deed of Derek. Therefore, he can also claim for the financial damages as well as emotional damages.

As Charles has suffered from huge financial losses because the marriage ceremony that was planned to be held never took place, these damages are to be recovered somehow. Clara has proposed that she will try to recover a part of those damages by selling out her engagement ring but even then a major part of losses is not going to be covered. Therefore, they want a proper solution to the problem. The law can address this complex issue though such incidents occur very infrequently. Discussed below are some issues of major concern that are needed to be discussed.

Analysis:

1) Clara's selling of her engagement ring:

The actual responsibility of causing the damages do not fall on Clara therefore Clara is not liable for the recovery of damages. This case is similar to the case of a breach of agreement. In this case, the agreement was being formed between Clara and Derek and it was in actual a marriage agreement. As the agreement was breached before its complete fulfillment, this agreement can be termed legally as void. In such a case, the person who was responsible for the termination of the agreement is the guilty party and is liable to recover the damages. If the person responsible for the breach of this contract is Derek, then he and only he should pay for the damages and not Clara. Clara is at least not legally bound to pay the money to her father because she and her father are the same party and none of them has in any way contributed to the termination of the agreement. However, there is no legal restriction on Clara, as well, that she cannot sell her engagement ring to compensate for her father's damages. If she thinks that she can bear some of the losses and can compensate the damages to some extent then ethically she can do so.

However, any such deed will not reduce the collective financial losses brought to both of them as some part of damages will simply transfer from Charles to Clara which is not the solution to the problem. Here a point can be raised that the ring was actually presented by Derek to Clara and therefore, it should be sold out to cover the damages as it is Derek's property. However, one strong argument against this point is that the ownership of the ring is no more with Derek as he has presented the ring to Clara with his full consent and therefore the ownership of the ring has transferred from Derek to Clara.

2) Clara's claim for recovery of damages from Derek:

Clara can definitely recover the damages from Derek because it was him who brought the high level of embarrassment and humiliation, which Clara experienced on her so called wedding day. She has not only suffered from a high level of humiliation among her peers and other community member but she has also experienced intense frustration and disturbance because of Derek's unethical deed. It is not only the case of the breach of contract but also a matter of harming an individual's emotional feelings by creating false expectations in her mind and by making empty promises. The most favorable point for Clara, which will help her in getting the court's sympathy, is that Derek falsely pretended to fulfill the contract till the last moment by appearing in the wedding rehearsal. This is a clear act of deceit and betrayal.

3) Charles' claim for recovery of Damages from Derek: