$550,000 Verdict Against Photographer for Harassment
Written by Eric Reagan on February 2nd, 2008 | 2 CommentsThis is a great example of what not to do as a professional photographer:
John and Kerri Vickers were awarded a $550,000 verdict in their case against Ted Elden and his company Elden Associates on Nov. 28 by an Ohio Circuit Court jury. John Vickers’ mother and stepfather, Jim and Connie Murray of Wheeling, also were involved in the case.
Christopher Regan, an attorney with Bordas & Bordas in Wheeling, said Elden mailed cut-up photo negatives to the Vickers and the Murrays as well as other members of their families.
“The circumstances were like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Regan said. “The harassment would not stop. There were 18 to 20 mailings.”
(Keep reading via West Virginia Record)
July 24th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Why am I not surprised? Elden is a conspiracy kook (mostly 911 but also other lunacy) and has given the impression of mental illness for some time.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I, Ted Elden, did this job. The client WOULD NOT SIGN A CONTRACT nor give me a payment before the wedding. I did it any way, I know my work, style, images delight many – 1/2 million images so far, nationally published, international award.
Weeks after the wedding they came to my office, signed my $ 1000 contact, and paid only $ 400. Rather than take the contracted 140 proofs, I gave them about 600 FINAL PRINTS, and later offered them any print for $ 1 (contract price was $ 8) and as per contract offered to sell the negatives.
Over a month later, they finally paid for the wedding shoot.
Contract was clear, if they did not want anything further then I could discard the work. Rather than discard it, I sorted thru and found the silly candid images or less then perfect images and marked them not to be used (as per the contract) and sent them to the client. They lied and deceived me as to where they were, how to reach them etc. They never elected to get even 1 print after the initial meeting. An in-law offered me $ 900 for the negatives, that I wanted to sell, but the bride had not paid me yet to shoot the wedding – so I could not let go of the negatives then.
The mention in the article about stalking is completely false.
The bride never said I stalked her. I have not stalked her or anyone, ever.
The plaintiff’s neighbor was the jury foreman. I thnk there were 2 cases of perjury in those speaking of me. Another bride, to whom I gave 800+ final prints and negatives, althougth she only contracted for 140 proofs, said she had nothing (from me). That is abolutely not true. She had medium format prints and negatives.