Troubled marriage ceremony images firm accused of defying courtroom order; state seeks $1.7M :: WRAL.com

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is asking a choose to order a husband-and-wife images group to pay almost $1.7 million after the corporate allegedly didn’t ship marriage ceremony images and video, after which didn’t adjust to a courtroom order requiring it to take action.

The Attorney General’s Office sued Holly Christina Photography earlier this 12 months after tons of of {couples} reported paying hundreds of {dollars} for marriage ceremony images and videography providers they by no means acquired. 5 On Your Side first reported on the problem in January; the corporate introduced it could shut in February.

Jackson’s request comes simply weeks after the co-owners of Holly Christina Photography spoke with reporters exterior a Winston-Salem courthouse and mentioned they had been doing the whole lot of their energy to satisfy what they might. Holly Ayscue mentioned an sickness contributed to the failure of the enterprise.

In May, a choose issued a preliminary injunction ordering the corporate to show over all edited and unedited images and movies inside 30 days. The order additionally required the corporate to cease doing enterprise and prohibited its house owners from transferring firm belongings whereas the case proceeded.

Jackson’s workplace says the corporate didn’t comply.

The lawyer basic is now in search of a last judgment that might require the supply of each remaining picture and video, almost $600,000 in restitution for affected shoppers and greater than $1.1 million in civil penalties. The requested judgment would additionally completely prohibit the corporate and its house owners from partaking in related conduct.

Since January, the Attorney General’s Office says it has heard from 228 individuals concerning the firm.

“These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives,” Jackson mentioned. “The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.”

A choose has not but dominated on the lawyer basic’s request.