“The menu is an offer for a contract by you. I accepted the offer”
A lawyer has sent his local restaurant a strongly worded letter claiming it was in breach of contract after it failed to provide “beef vegetable” soup as part of a weekend meal deal.
Dwain Downing — an independent attorney who practises in Texas — fell out with his local eatery when they ran out of the soup that was due to accompany the $7.95 (£5.50) Saturday lunch special.
Downing — who according to his website has provided “excellent legal services since 1981” — claims that staff at ‘Our Place’ in Mansfield, Texas, refused to offer either a substitute, or a price discount, when supplies of their delicious “beef vegetable” soup ran dry.
Unwilling to back down, and in a move that will no doubt improve the image of lawyers everywhere, Downing headed back to his office to draft a pointless legal letter.
Addressed to the restaurant’s owner Benji Arslanovski, Downing explains how the lack of soup constitutes a breach of contract. Continuing his somewhat pedantic legal analysis, the experienced attorney suggests that the restaurant’s menu is an “offer” and by purchasing the meal deal the offer was “accepted”.
The letter also suggests that the restaurant — and Arslanovski — committed a “deceptive trade practice in violation of Texas law”.
Claiming a whopping $2.25 (£1.54) in damages and $250 (£171) in legal fees, Downing informs Arslanovski that if he has not heard from him within 10 days he will be commencing legal proceedings.
The letter — which has since going viral — seems to have backfired for the hungry lawyer, with Downing receiving a number of threatening messages via his social media accounts.
Downing continues to maintain that he doesn’t regret sending it, but does concede that he is going to think about his next legal move very carefully. He said:
If you want to know if I’m going to follow up with a lawsuit — probably not.
