A federal judge in Philadelphia recently ordered two lesbians involved in a financial dispute to participate in 10 hours of mediation.
In a federal lawsuit filed last year, the plaintiff claims the defendant owes her about $330,000 stemming from joint real-estate ventures and transactions.
The women lived together in Philadelphia from August 2010-June 2015. The plaintiff subsequently relocated to Mississippi, but the defendant continues to live in Philadelphia.
The women were also business partners and embarked on real-estate ventures involving properties in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to court records.
Through their attorneys, the women expressed a desire for privacy and PGN is withholding their names.
The plaintiff alleges the defendant owes her $128,178.87 from the sale of their prior residence — which is 50 percent of the sale’s proceeds — even though the plaintiff’s name wasn’t on the title to the property.
The plaintiff contends her name wasn’t on the title because the defendant wasn’t “out” as a lesbian.
“[The joint property] was titled in defendant’s sole name because defendant was not publicly out as a lesbian and did not want a record of joint property ownership with plaintiff,” according to the suit.
The remainder of the disputed funds relate to other jointly owned property, unreimbursed services and contributions by the plaintiff, and alleged misuse of a joint bank account by the defendant.
The plaintiff’s suit contains 11 counts against the defendant involving breach of contract, conversion, unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel.
“Plaintiff has made numerous demands to defendant and defendant has made promises to plaintiff that she has not abided by, including inducing plaintiff to travel to Philadelphia in December 2016 to attempt to resolve the financial dispute wherein it was not resolved,” according to the suit.
A defense filing seeks the dismissal of several counts, citing insufficient contractual evidence, lack of jurisdiction, lack of timeliness, redundancy, inadequate documentation and other reasons.
Last month, in a nine-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ordered the women to participate in 10 hours of mediation. Beetlestone said she’ll defer ruling on the defense’s request for dismissal of the case while the mediation takes place.
Neither side had a comment for this story.