Breach Of Promise

Man: Well, if he did she was asking for it.

Others interested in this line of discussion chime in. Speculations continue for a long time, then…

Cliff: You know, Maribel, I didn’t like that lawyer either. And it’s so easy to be influenced by those feelings, isn’t it? But I know when it comes time to decide, I’ve got to put that feeling aside, and really use my head. Now, I can tell you’re a smart woman who can tell the difference between what you feel and real evidence…

Woman: You know what struck me about Reilly? She looked fu

Man: Don’t you remember all the noise when Marcia Clark wore a light-colored suit during the Simpson criminal trial? They do it so we’ll like them better.

Woman: (laughing) What baloney!

They discuss the lawyers’ clothes.

Cliff: Let’s go back to Maribel, okay? What about Lindy’s claim?

Maribel: You know, I’m thinking about the real evidence, don’t you worry. But I have to say, where do you think Mike Markov would be today without Lindy? Coaching kids at the YMCA, if he was lucky. She had all the imagination and drive. He’s an old fighter, a loser by the time she met him. He was rollin’ downhill. Now, here she came along with all this perked-up energy to pull him up with her. She was his ticket to a better life. But, let’s face it. The law’s not always fair. I remember once this gal I knew-

Cliff: So you think the law doesn’t really support her claim; but you feel she should get something.

Maribel: Well, I do feel that, on the other hand, we do have to think about the law.

Cliff: So

So

Cliff: (pause) Okay, So

Courtney Poole: Wait, I want to say some more about that lawyer, Ms. Reilly. Can I do that?

Cliff: Let’s try to stay on the point…

Mrs. Lim: I think Courtney should say what she wants to say…

Courtney: Because I thought she really made sense when she said, why should Mrs. Markov come away with nothing, not even a toothbrush? I mean, probably she took her toothbrush, but it sounded to me like she’s the one who picked everything in that house. He had no interest. And then, he turned around and kicked her out.

Bob: Well, but remember, they were not legally married. Legally, the house was in his name.

Cliff: Could we hold off on discussion until we finish going around the room? We’re almost done here. What are your thoughts, Kevin?

Courtney: Excuse me, but I’m not finished.

Cliff: Sorry. Please go on.

Courtney: It’s not like she’s going to go out and get a job easy. She’s really old. Also, did you notice how she always defended him? She still loves him, even after all he’s done to her. I guess he owes her something probably.

On the other hand, does she have any legal rights? How can we judge what they agreed on? We don’t get to go in the bedroom, or the church with them. We saw them in court, where they both fibbed and forgot things. You can never really know what goes on between two people. So I have a lot of doubts.

By the way, I’m twenty-two and I’m living with my mom at the Keys while I go to the University in Reno. I’m a psychology major and boy, I am learning a lot here already.

Bob: Yeah, here you are in a locked room with a buncha loonies!

Maribel: Hey, people! Remember that! Bob Binkley openly admits to being loony.

Laughter. They adjourn for a fifteen minute break. Takes them several minutes to get back to their chairs.

Cliff: Kevin, I believe you’re next.

Kevin Dowd: I have to say something about what Bob said first because I think we have a basic difference. In my opinion, Lindy and Mike Markov owe the world nothing. It’s every man for himself out there, and you have to work to survive. If you fall and you can’t get up, tough. They earned what they have. They should decide how to spend it without being under constant attack by spineless punks.

Now, I know something about this situation. Not to put too fine a point on it, I’m a wealthy man. And I’ll never say a thing against the ladies, God bless ’em. Where would we be without them? She helped him in a lot of ways, no doubt about that.

But the fact is, and here’s where I do agree with Bob, she was an employee of the corporation. She received a salary. And the fact is, she was Mike Markov’s lover. But that doesn’t make her his wife. And it doesn’t entitle her to any of his hard-earned money.

Cliff: What about you, Kris? What do you say?

Kris Schmidt: I’m a housewife with two kids, and I should be at home right now. My kids need me, especially in the afternoon to help them with their homework. These people’s problems are pretty darn far-removed from Joe’s and mine. He repairs boats, and does dry-dock work at the marina. We scrape by. What’s amazing to us is that there are people like the Markovs-I mean, their biggest worry has to be which yacht to take out today.

I just wish I could say I knew the right thing to do so we could all get out of here. Some of the legal stuff really goes over my head. The other night Joe and I were talking… we didn’t talk about the case, of course. I know what the judge said. But we did talk about this kind of situation in general. Joe says that women almost never get any money out of these palimony cases. I thought that was strange, I mean why not, if there’s plenty to go around.

Then I remembered how hard it is for me to wring a dime out of Joe for clothes for the kids, a night at the movies, anything. I think men are fighting a losing battle to keep women under their thumbs.

By the way, you know where that expression came from? A man used to be able to whip his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. That was perfectly legal.

I guess there’s no reason she should go off poor when Mike Markov could buy all of us, except maybe Kevin here, a few hundred times over. You notice the way he said he’d take care of her? He’d like that. He’d like her to come begging to him for the rest of her life. That’s pretty pathetic.

Cliff: Grace?

Grace Whipple: I’m fifty-four, divorced and taking care of a grown child who has some disabilities. Like Kevin, I also think I know something about this situation, but in my case it’s not because I’m rolling in the dough.

It takes a helluva lot of character to stick by someone who needs you. It’s an underrated virtue to be loyal. Not that she should be rewarded for her love, but maybe she should have some kind of compensation for giving so much of herself, so much of her life, to these enterprises that totally benefited Mike Markov. She really built something out of not much.

She’s close to my age. I like to think I’ve got a lot of years left to live. If she goes away broke, she’s got to start all over. Just imagine a woman like her out there applying for jobs. Nobody’s go

Cliff: Frank.

Frank Lister: I’m a retired biologist. I’ve been involved lately in organizing an organic food co-op. In my opinion, you have to reduce the issues here to basics. What Mike Markov is doing is simple mating behavior, finding a younger mate now that his partner is past childbearing age. Our purpose here is to procreate. We have that in common with almost any animal.

Cliff: Frank, what about your vote?

Frank: The most rational approach is to look to the law. In this case, I don’t think there’s any question. She shouldn’t get anything. The law doesn’t support it.

Cliff: Um, Diane?

Diane Miklos: I’m thirty-nine and I’m a professional climber. And I…

Bob: Somebody pays you to climb?

Diane: I raise money from sponsors, like outdoor clothing stores, camping gear manufacturers. Then I take the gear with me and photograph it while I’m climbing. They use the photos in their ads. I do slide shows and get people to contribute. My goal is to be the oldest woman to climb the seven summits, which are the seven highest peaks. So far, I’ve done three.