John Claassen wants a date so badly he’s suing for one.
He’s taking eHarmony.com to court, because the popular online matchmaker refused to find him the perfect mate.
Why? Because he is married.
Technically, Claassen says, he is legally separated. But that’s not good enough for eHarmony, which says it is in the business of matching singles “free of relationship commitments.” That puts him in cyber-dating limbo.
But eHarmony says its policy is clear: No marrieds need apply.
So, what’s the consensus here… do married men have the right to date?!
The rights of the married guy are pretty insignificant compared to the right of eHarmony to create and enforce their own rules of operation…I believe they said he was welcome to reapply once his divorce was final…
He should have used AdultFriendFinder instead. Stupid horn dog.
Not unless they have permission from their spouse. End of Story.
if they are advertising that people are “free,” then I suppose they should be. of course, this is uhmericah.
They should be allowed to do whatever they want. eHarmony has no responsibility to provide for them though.
It’s a private site, they set the rules. You can play in their sandbox or build your own.
I was in this position myself a few years ago- a nasty divorce with a woman who wanted everything and had no real means to make it happen based on the merits of her claims, so things just took forever. Filed in ’99, didn’t become final until ’04. Once it was clear that the relationship could never be salvaged, I just felt that every day spent not looking for the right woman was a day of my life wasted. He might not have a right to use this site, but there should be others that permit this specific situation. Sometimes it’s only a matter of time before the divorce is final. It could be months or in some cases years. The right woman won’t care, if you are right for eachother. eHarmony might enable that sort of thing- a pending legal situation…
It looks like the consensus is that eHarmony was well within their rights as stated in their charter. I can’t argue with that.
This is like the guy who tried to sue Hooters because he couldn’t be a Hooters Girl. Well, duh!
If his divorce goes through, would he still want to use eHarmony? Well, that’s when the tables are turned. I guarantee eHarmony won’t try to sue him for not joining.
G
Why didn’t this guy lie about his marrage status? He could simply make another eHarmony account, and claim he’s single.
So of they said their rules were no blacks, you’re ok with that?
Well he’s an idiot scum-sucking lawyer, no wonder he’s suing! DUH!
I do wonder how he came up with $12,000 in damages? Either he’s got a Johnny Cochrane-like billing rate, or he’s trying to scrounge up money for a mail-order bride… loser.
Some states have an “alienation of affection law” meaning a spouse can sue money damages based on allegations of emotional harm caused by a third party to their marital relationship. Even advising someone to leave a marriage can be grounds for such a suit.
eHarmony probably doesn’t want to get a reputation of having a large number of cheating spouses and they probably don’t want to get sued by some spouse who wouldn’t take it very lightly rather take them to court. Either way they’ll lose money.
I believe there are 6 or 7 states who still have this law. Most people don’t even know that it exists in their state until their divorce lawyer tells them about it. Sometimes you get lucky and hear of someone else’s experience with this law.
Zuke – they’re all “idiot scum-sucking lawyer”s until you need em. Then they’re really expensive “idiot scum-sucking lawyer”s.
My wife says no, married men can’t date.
(I’m not sure if she was referring to just me or all married guys.)
Just proves that this is the USA…. where you an sue anybody over anything.
“do married men have the right to date?!”
In most places I don’t believe there are any laws stopping them. But at the same time, no one’s legally obliged to help him, either.
It’s like freedom of speech in the US. It’s a right, but there’s no requirement that anyone provide a forum for you to exercise it.
Cheap publicity stunt. eHarmony probably paid the legal fee’s. Shame on you for believing them.
Hook, Line and Sinker!
#16 and #18 read #13. In some states married people can not date. Most states have abolished this law but not all.
http://www.rosen.com/alienationofaffection/
I’m no expert axe…they’re foreign laws to me. Ridiculous ones too. Laws aren’t going to stop people who cheat.
The man who has married should be honest to his wife.
Is everyone here stupid? They are separated, and many states *require* a legal separation before the divorce can be finalized. Many people CANNOT legally divorce because of filing fees, lawyers, etc.,.
How old are all of you? 12?
One more comment:
I’ve never been to eHarmony. Do they have a star-rating like Amazon or eBay? After a date, can you go back rate the person?
That would be pretty cool. They should do that.
This man is picking a fight when there doesn’t have to be one. He is fighting the eHarmony agreement of use that is unenforceable. I haved used eHarmony twice. Once, about 1.5 years ago when after spending about two hours answer HONESTLY all the questions they posed they asked, without a disclaimer, what my marital status was. I checked off “separated” which brought up the next page that said that they couldn’t offer me the service because I was still legally married. So I gave them my sincerity and time, and they rejected me. REJECTED me! For being honest. I was livid. I felt powerless and taken in. This guy is fighting back for eHarmony’s dishonest approach. If they do not allow seperated or married men to use their services then they should have disclosed that from the BEGINNNING, not at the end where they benefit with data of who is using their service. If they truly want to have a site where no married or seperated men are involved (which is their right) then they should increase their membership dues to include verification through city halls with disclosed consent. This man has made a difference so far. I tried eHarmony last month. Again same long process. When the time came to check off marital status, a pop-up box disclaimed that their site was not for married/seperated persons (even though they still had the check boxes for married and seperated!). I checked off “divorced” and was allowed to use their service. Lying is not against the law. The truth is that I am divorced except the legal paper does not reflect that. I know better than eHarmony does. This man knew better too, and is on his way to prove that in a court. He will win.
david
Interesting light on the subject that no one has addressed before. In order to check if there are Terms of Service, or other disclosure, I didn’t see any up front. The guy might have a very valid point if only after spending two hours filling out their forms, they then told him he was ineligible
There is now a section for Married Couples. I didn’t check it out. I wonder if that might be as a result of this lawsuit.
E-Harmony is creepy Plus. If you can’t get chicks face to face then how can you do it on line? Unless you just get a rush from watching the agonizing expression of shattered illusions spread across some poor woman’s face upon the first face to face meeting.
To the fifty plus guy who can’t get anything going: Don’t worry about it, in a few years you’ll appreciate your solitude.
And yeah, I doubt all those super happy goofballs praising E-Harmony on the TV commercials are for real, most likely low-rent actors/actresses hard up for a gig.
This is at least intactful to make a person spend his time on filling in all the forms and then decline the request.
And besides there shouldn’t be any check boxes for separated or married people over there or they should check it at the beginning of the profile so that not to waste the time.
This guy can win the case only because he was rejected so impolitely. Besides there are diffrent situations in life and there’s nothing bad that the person is honest when placing marital status infomation )
eHarmony should sue him! A married man lost his ability to date the moment he said “I do.”
Is everyone here stupid? They are separated, and many states *require* a legal separation before the divorce can be finalized. Many people CANNOT legally divorce because of filing fees, lawyers, etc.,.
How old are all of you? 12?
It is people like him, suing for pride, that is taking our freedoms away. Not to mention that it won’t take long before costs go up or more people are out of work because companies can’t afford or won’t afford the legal costs to make sure they have every T crossed and I dotted for all the prideful, greedy, idiots out there and have thought of every possible lawsuit that could come from prideful, greedy, idiots to make sure their disclaimer page is 1 billion pages long. Suck it up and move on. Fools.