Please see the attached link to a report of a recent English County Court judgment in a match between sports pundit, Jim Rosenthal, and celebrity chef, Heston Blumenthal. The District Judge rejected a claim by Mr Rosenthal to recover the cost of a meal at Mr Blumenthal's Michelin starred restaurant, the Fat Duck, apparently on the basis of a total failure of consideration (or total failure of the meal, as it is explained in the report). The claim arose in circumstances where Mr Rosenthal and his guests had fallen violently ill after eating some "jelly oysters".  The grounds of the decision are unclear, although the defence does appear to have been one of compromise.

The argument by Mr Rosenthal's counsel is quoted as follows:

"The meal was of negative nutritional value and none of the other ingredients were of benefit ... The meal failed to deliver the benefits the claimant paid for."

"Nutritionally, it was as though they had paid for no meal at all."

"It was not simply disappointing - they were left wishing that had never had the meals."

"Put in graphic terms, they did not even keep the meals down."

"What is the value of a meal that is going to make you violently ill? It must be zero. No one is going to pay for a meal which is going to make them violently ill - so on that basis, he is entitled to get the cost back."

If this isn't TFC (and the argument doesn't convince me - to wish that one had not received something, or to have received and disposed of it, is not the same as not having received it in the first place), I would rather not think about questions of counter restitution, at least in kind.

Kind regards

Andrew

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boxing-host-loses-claim-over-fat-duck-illness-2079151.html

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