Wedding photographs

In July 2007, I was working for a company in Washington, D.C. One of my co-workers had a daughter who was getting married. I offered to photograph the wedding at no charge. I only asked that I be allowed to use the photographs in a portfolio of my work. About a week after the wedding, I gave about 5 to 10 prints on 8.5 x 11 glossy photo paper and a CD of the remaining pictures to the brides mother in our office in the presence of our co-workers. There was never any written agreement between me, the bride or groom, nor the bride’s mother. I did not accept any money from anyone involved.

I displayed 2 of the images for several years in my portfolio on a photo sharing website I control. I moved from Maryland (the Washington D.C. area) in April of 2010 and I now live in California.

About 2 months ago, I received an angry email from the bride’s mother in which she called me several names and threatened to sue me if I did not immediately take the 2 photos out of my portfolio and immediately send all of the pictures to her on a CD.

I immediately removed the photos from my online portfolio. I wrote back to her and apologized for any misunderstanding and told her I had removed the photos. I reminded her that I had already given her the photos and prints. She claims that I never gave her the CD.

I would be glad to give her a CD with the images from the wedding, but I am unable to find my back-up copy of the CD. I have looked through my belongings, but I may have lost it in my move to California. I have the images on a hard disk drive, but that drive failed. I cannot recover any of the images on it. I have gotten estimates from 2 data recovery services. They will charge between $199 and $2,400 to recover the images, if they can.

Can I be sued for this by the bride’s mother?

No. She can only sue under an implied UCC contract, which requires consideration. Showing your work, on a photo sharing website should not meet that standard. She will spend more chasing it than it is worth as her damages are the price she paid, which is $0.

Can you be sued? The answer to this question is almost always yes, however that does not mean that bride's mother has a case, especially since you had already delivered the CD to her as per your gratuitous prom