Bad Date Lawsuit over movie texting unlikely to pay off

In this era of technology, when everyone has a smartphone and most everyone seems obsessed with staring at the things for hours at a time, it is not uncommon to hear folks bemoaning the demise of common courtesy.

Indeed, everywhere you look people are staring at their phones. They do it in the streets, at work, in retail establishments and in restaurants. They even do it at the dinner table and, we suspect, on the sly in church.

Yes, we all hear the complaints. Maybe we even complain ourselves. But one man in Austin, Texas, decided to do something about it.

Brandon Vezmar, 37, recently took a young lady out on a date. It did not go well.

They went to the movies to see the new “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequel. Apparently the lady found her phone more compelling than the film or the company, and she took to texting.

Vezmar found this annoying and asked her to stop. She did not. He suggested she should go outside if she wanted to text. She did—and did not come back.

Now Vezmar is taking her to small claims court. He wants $17 for the money he spent on her movie ticket. He also wants $4 he forked out for a slice of pizza.

The suit says the young woman violated theater policy, she adversely affected other patrons’ enjoyment of the film and that her behavior was a “threat to civilized society.”

The movie theater, in the meantime, has offered Vezmar a gift certificate if he will drop the suit.

We sympathize. We really do. All this texting, no matter the time and place, is annoying. It is aggravating. And yes, it is uncivilized.

But you go out on a date, you take your chances. You aren’t buying anything for your movie ticket and pizza. You have no right to expect anything, not even good manners. You can only hope the date goes well. This one didn’t. The best thing to do is chalk it up to experience because no court is going to go along with this.

Vezmar would be wise to grab the theater’s offer. It’s the best he’s going to do. And maybe he can use it to treat a date who better appreciates “Guardians of the Galaxy”—and him.