Diamonds Boca Raton

Have you ever been on a cruise?  Well, if you have, you know the on-board shops are a fan favorite.  Here, you can shop duty free and get a great deal on a wide variety of items.  Alcohol is always popular to buy on a cruise, and so is jewelry.  Usually, items are marked down a huge percentage from the original retail and buyers are very satisfied.  But what happens when the price quoted for an item is a mistake?  And then the buyer buys the item for a huge discount?  This is exactly what Starboard Cruise Services and Thomas DePrince are going to court over now.  Apparently a message was not relayed properly, and DePrince bought a $20 million diamonds Boca Raton for only $235,000, or so he thought.

Now after two years and a canceled sale, a Miami-Date appeals court has ruled that DePrince should have the opportunity to argue in court that the sale should go through.  The Third District Court of Appeals sums up the case like this:  “Now DePrince wants his twenty carat diamond; Starboard wants out of its sales contract; and Starboard’s supplier, who allegedly misquoted the price of the diamond upon which Starboard and DePrince relied, has not even been added as a party to the lawsuit.”  “In short,” the judges added, “this is truly a gem of a case.”

DePrince is a retired antique and jewelry dealer from the North East.  He has a vacation home in South Florida and frequents Starboard cruises.  He was visiting the jewelry store on board when a salesman recognized him and asked him if he was still interested in buying a loose stone.  He was, and told the salesman just that.  Then the salesman emailed their corporate office in Doral where two stones were available, a 20.64 carat for $235,000 and a 20.73 carat for $245,000.  DePrince decided to think it over with his life partner who happens to be a gemologist.  They decided that he should buy the stone, which he does even though his life partner told him the deal seemed too good to be true.  Part of the deal included that the diamond be sent to GIA in New York for confirmation.

Shortly after the sale was complete, Starboard representatives realized their huge mistake.  The diamond cost $235,000 per carat!  Not total.  Which means they just sold a diamond worth over $4 million for pennies on the dollar.  Starboard “had inadvertently contracted to sell the diamond to DePrince for less than 1/20th of the diamond’s actual value,” the appeals court wrote.  Five days after the sale, Starboard called DePrince to tell him of the huge mistake, canceled the sale and refunded his money immediately.

After the money was refunded and the sale was canceled, DePrince filed a lawsuit.  He thinks Starboard breached the contract at that the stone should be his for $235k.  Then, Starboard asked the judge to throw the case out and he agreed.  However, the appeals court disagreed stating: “there remain genuine issues of material fact to be resolved,” and sent the case back to trial court.

It will be interesting to see what the court rules.  After all, if DePrince is allowed to keep the diamond it might mean that any seller who sells something too cheap can just retract the sale and get the item back.