It’s very likely that there was a time when you wanted to file suit against an ex following a particularly nasty breakup.
Perhaps the sight of your former partner clipping their toenails while eating sent you into a shame spiral that caused you to question every decision you’ve ever made.
Or maybe they ruined your friendships by showing up to pub trivia night and incessantly shouting, “Freebird!” during the music rounds.
Or they might have brought you to the brink of a meltdown by washing that NFL jersey you’ve had since you were a kid even though you told them it was game-worn and signed, Stacy, God!
Anyway, all of those annoyances pale in comparison to the suffering that Eric Abramovitz endured at the hands of his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lee.
Eric and Jennifer met while they were both in college and within a month, they were living together and sharing a laptop.
Frankly, we’re side-eyeing both of them for moving that quickly, but hey, maybe it would have worked out — were it not for the fact that Jen is a bunny-boiling nutjob.
You see, Eric is one of the top clarinetists in the country, a fact that’s important for two reasons:
1. As a Canadian clarinetist, we assume he’s the most non-threatening man alive and doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined.
2. Jennifer decided to torpedo Eric’s clarinetting career in the most brutal way possible, apparently as some sort of twisted act of love.
Back in 2013, Eric was offered a chance to study the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, where he would hone his craft alongside Yehuda Gilad, who is apparently considered the top clarinetist in the world.
Not only that, the school was prepared to offer Eric a $ 50,000 scholarship.
Great news, right?
Well, not for Eric, because he didn’t find out about the offer until it was much too late.
Remember that shared laptop we mentioned earlier?
Yeah, Jen used that to delete the scholarship email and then decline the offer on Eric’s behalf.
In case that’s not psychotic enough for you, she then created a fake email address and pretended to be Gilad.
She emailed her boyfriend — posing as the world’s greatest clarinetist — and basically told him better luck next time.
Years later — after he and Lee had broken up — Abramovitz crossed paths with his would-be mentor and Gilad asked why he turned down the scholarship.
“That’s when I knew something underhanded was afoot,” Eric told the Montreal Gazette.
That’s putting mildly.
Using a password that he knew was a favorite of Jen’s, Eric logged into the fake email account Jennifer had created.
Not only did he uncover the fake rejection letter she had penned herself, he found out she’d also turned him down on behalf of Julliard and other top schools.
The reason? She didn’t want him to move away and leave her behind.
Needless to say, Eric was a little dismayed to learn that his ex had willfully set his career back by several years, and he decided to take the matter before a judge.
This week, an Ontario judge awarded Ambramovitz $ 350,000 as compensation for irreparable career damage.
“I accept and find that Mr. Abramovitz lost a unique and prestigious educational opportunity, one that would have advanced his career as a professional clarinetist,” the judge said.
“I cannot speculate as to how high and how quickly Mr. Abramovitz’s career might have soared, but for the interference by Ms. Lee. But the law does recognize that the loss of a chance is a very real and compensable loss.”
Let this be a lesson to everyone who’s in a relationship, might one day be in a relationship, or just got out of a relationship:
Keep those passwords private, folks.