This past week saw some crazy events in the world. A sea lion “re-accommodating” a little girl, a custody battle over moon dust from the original moon landing and the usual Trump news. But what was the craziest thing you ask?
Well, if you’re asking a particular home renting couple in Israel, they will tell you how they lost a court case and $2000 because of emojis!
Yep… emojis. Let me paint you a picture on this one and tell me how it sounds:
You and your partner are shopping around for an apartment/house to rent. You find a place you like and decide that this might be the one. You contact the landlord and tell him your interested by saying this: ”Good morning ? Interested in the house ???????????… Just need to discuss the details… When’s a good time for you ?”.
Screenshot of the actual text message from case
Fast forward a day or two. It turns out you don’t want the place after all. But since the landlord already took down the ad spot for the space, and thus off the market, he is now taking you to court for fraudulent intent to purchase. Fast forward again. Surprise! You lost the case and you’re out $2000 because the judge saw the emojis in your text conversation and decided that:
“These icons convey great optimism. Although this message did not constitute a binding contract between the parties, this message naturally led to the Plaintiff’s great reliance on the defendant’s desire to rent his apartment”.
So this actually happened! Sounds fair right? In all seriousness, for people who grew up in the generation that birthed emojis, the concept of emojis being overly convincing can be both true and false, but to an extent.
For example, A girl or guy you like sending you that ? is reason enough to get stoked. But honestly, if it turns out that that person is leading you on and you fire back, saying “But you sent me a ?! I thought you were serious about us!”, YOU WOULD LOOK STUPID!
So as to why this very concept was able to hold up in a court case is beyond me. Maybe because it happened in Israel? I’m sure the “Your word is bond” notion carries more weight in that part of the world, but be reasonable. How does????? invoke ”great reliance”? All I know is that this type of thing wouldn’t fly in the U.S.
Or maybe with the way people are starting to use emojis it will soon. I hope not ????.
With Two Buttons Deep, I’m Todd.
Two Buttons Deep is a news & entertainment website based in upstate New York.
We don’t just post the news, we post stuff worth talking about…
Visit our newsfeed, and stay up to date on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.