A Hays County wedding venue is locked in a legal battle with a woman whose fiancé died months before their wedding, after the venue refused to return nearly $16,000 the couple had paid and then countersued the surviving fiancée this summer for breach of contract, court records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
Diego Hernandez was supposed to get married Nov. 20 at Posey Meadows, a wedding venue in the countryside outside San Marcos.
He never made it to his wedding day.
Hernandez died suddenly in late April at just 25 years old, leaving his family and fiancée grieving a future that would never come.
His fiancée declined to take part in this story and asked KSAT to respect her privacy.
But Hernandez’s mother, Lucy Hernandez, is speaking out about a dispute that has now landed in district court.
“I’ve planned other funerals. I’ve lost my mom and my dad and a brother, but planning a son’s funeral is very different,” Lucy Hernandez said. “It weighs very different.”
Diego Hernandez and his fiancée had paid $15,909.28 toward their wedding at Posey Meadows before his death, according to court records and a venue contract obtained by KSAT Investigates.
After notifying the venue’s owner in April that the Nov. 20 wedding could not move forward, the family sought to have the money returned to Diego Hernandez’s fiancée.
Lucy Hernandez told KSAT she initially believed resolving the issue would be relatively simple.
“I’m very surprised,” she said. “I honestly felt that it wasn’t going to go past a phone call.”
Emails obtained by KSAT show Posey Meadows owner Julie Campbell told a member of the fiancée’s family that the venue was open to discussing other options.
Those included transferring the booking to a future date or applying the balance toward another type of event.
Campbell also wrote that if Posey Meadows was able to rebook the couple’s original wedding date, a partial refund might be possible.
But Lucy Hernandez said that in early May, just before she went to see her son’s body for the last time, she spoke with Campbell by phone about returning the money.
Lucy Hernandez said the conversation became tense and that Campbell ultimately told her the money would not be refunded.
“Where are their morals? Where are their moral principles?” Lucy Hernandez said. “We don’t have a fight in us. We don’t. We’re emotionally drained. This is just weighing heavily.”
Julie Campbell did not respond to a phone call seeking comment for this story.
An attorney representing Diego Hernandez’s fiancée sent Posey Meadows a demand letter in late June seeking the return of the money.
When the dispute remained unresolved, the fiancée filed a lawsuit against the venue in Hays County district court in late July.
The lawsuit describes Posey Meadows’ decision to retain the money as an “unjust and ghoulish windfall built on a young man’s death.”
The venue then took its own legal action, records show.
Posey Meadows filed a countersuit against Diego Hernandez’s fiancée, accusing her of breaching the couple’s contract.
According to the counterclaim, the fiancée not only sought the return of money already paid but also refused to pay the remaining balance required under the wedding contract.
The venue is seeking damages for the alleged breach.
The signed contract states that in the event of a cancellation, money paid will be forfeited.
The document does not include a clause about what occurs if one of the clients passes away.
“I’m just very surprised and I’m very disappointed and I’m very exhausted that it’s come to this,” Lucy Hernandez said.
Diego Hernandez’s death itself has also become an issue in the court fight.
In its counterclaim, Posey Meadows alleges the family failed to provide proof of Diego Hernandez’s death.
An attorney representing Diego Hernandez’s fiancée disputes that characterization.
He told KSAT Investigates he offered to provide Hernandez’s death certificate before the lawsuit was filed but received no response from the firm representing the venue.
When KSAT asked the attorney for a copy, he provided it within minutes.
The death certificate has since been filed as part of the court case.
