The Cost of Beauty: RHOSLC Celebrity Ordered to Pay $35,000 for Never Paying $2,000 Bill for Lip Injections
By Diane Lilli | Posted on November 13, 2024
Photo Source: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty via People.com
A former cast member of the Bravo reality series, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (RHOSLC), lost her legal fight against her former friend Heather Gay, owner of Beauty Labs + Laser. She has now been ordered by a Utah judge to pay over $35,000.
Beauty Labs + Laser sued RHOSLC star Monica Garcia, 40, for breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in November 2023.
Legal documents state that Ms. Garcia paid a downpayment of $400 for the lip injections, plus a $49 set-up fee. She agreed to pay another $200 per month for a period of ten months afterward. Yet for over a year, Ms. Garcia refused to pay her bill.
On October 22, 2024, Beauty Lab + Laser filed a proposed judgment with the Utah court, which the judge approved two weeks later.
In September 2023, after Ms. Garcia was sued, she filed a counterclaim lawsuit against the medical spa, alleging “breach of independent duty of care, breach of contract, and breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing.”
Ms. Garcia alleged, in legal documents, that she had received “botched” treatments and that her treatment comprised “defective, negligently given injections, which did not have the intended, promised result."
The counterclaim was dismissed in January 2024.
After a year of hearings, Ms. Garcia lost her court battle. The Salt Lake City judge ordered Ms. Garcia to pay the plaintiff the full cost of the lengthy litigation, at a cost of $35,853.60.
The $35,853.60 judgment against Ms. Garcia includes the unpaid $2,000 bill for her lip injections at Beauty Lab + Laser; $1,683 reflecting 18 percent pre-judgment interest, $604 in “late fees” and the cost of plaintiff’s attorney fees.
Court documents state that Beauty Lab + Laser has the right to collect post-judgment interest, at a rate of 18 percent per year, until Ms. Garcia fully pays the $35,853.60 judgment.
Ms. Garcia’s attorney, in court, said that the judgment was extremely “excessive.” He argued that the original legal complaint was only for $2000, which is “13 percent” of the $15,000 Utah Small Claims limit.
In response to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun, Ms. Garcia’s attorney announced plans to file an appeal.
Ms. Garcia was “fired” from the RHOSLC show in January 2024.
