Someone Finally Did It. (From News of the Weird)

[wagegoth]

MODS, if you know a better place to post this, please go ahead.

* Citing a "code of honor" acquired during 26 years in the Air
Force, retired pilot Ralph Paul, 54, decided in March that he would
not pay for the $15.99 "Shrimp and Scallop Verdura" at
Angellino's restaurant in Palm Harbor, Fla., because it contained
only five small shrimp and five scallops. After he complained
unsuccessfully, and walked out, the restaurant sent sheriff's
deputies after him, and he was charged with misdemeanor fraud.
Paul insisted to a St. Petersburg Times reporter that he couldn't
look himself in the mirror if he had paid, or even negotiated a
settlement, so he hired a $500-an-hour New York lawyer and, in a
one-day trial in October before a restive jury, he was acquitted. [St.
Petersburg Times, 10-5-06]

He ate the seafood. Here's the latest editorial from the St. Petersburg Times: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/...eamed+and+awed

To top it off, he only left a $3 tip on a $46 tab.

[Seanette]

One can only hope the restaurant takes this thief to court to recover their costs.

Just sign me "sickened".

[Rahmota]

Ok my brain now hurts. This sounds like it belongs in the Weekly world news or something. A man eats dinner then successfully sues to avoid paying it. I think I'll go beat my head against the wall at this.

[Crosshair]

I'm guessing that the lawyer secretly paid the bill just so he could bill this moron for $2000.

[Jester]

The man did not sue to avoid paying the bill, he merely refused to pay it after the restaurant would not take less than the listed price, and then was charged in criminal court for not paying his bill. He is still a bit of an SC, just not the kind of SC you are talking about. He is still an SC because he tipped a miserly $3.

By the way, I often eat seafood pasta. It does not come with tons of seafood...ten pieces is more than reasonable and about standard, if you ask me. But the article says he thought he was ordering a seafood dish, not a pasta dish. Well....if that was the case, why did he not send it back once he realized his error? Answer: He is an SC.

Normally the restaurants here in Key West are awesome, with few exceptions. My roommate and I once found one of the exceptions. We were out to dine, and the drinks and appetizer were top notch. Then we got our entrees. His steak was very much not to his liking (and the place is a steak house!), but my seafood pasta took the cake. A seafood pasta that has four different kinds of seafood, as mine did (shrimp, scallops, and two others I can't recall this far after the fact) should have gobs of flavor. A restaurant must work awfully hard to make such a dish completely void of any flavor whatsoever, but that is what happened at this place. No, we have not returned to that particular establishment.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Ok...

Lemme get this straight. For the principle of the matter, the guy refused to pay $16 for his dinner that he felt to be lacking in portion and sued to get the right NOT to pay.

And in the process spent court costs, lawyer fees that would be at least over a grand.

Principle is one thing, but this is something else entirely.

[Boozy]

When I waitressed, we had a rule that the server would ask THREE times how the food was...once for a visual inspection when the dish was brought to the table, once when they were about halfway through, and again at the end when we cleared the plates.
And of course, we still had people who said everything was fine, cleaned their plates, and when they got their bill, went to the manager and said it sucked and refused to pay. No dice! You ate every last crumb and said nothing when given the chance.
Sue us! Our butts are covered.

[friendofjimmyk]

Ok...

Lemme get this straight. For the principle of the matter, the guy refused to pay $16 for his dinner that he felt to be lacking in portion and sued to get the right NOT to pay.

And in the process spent court costs, lawyer fees that would be at least over a grand.

Principle is one thing, but this is something else entirely.

That's what I am thinking. I hate it when people say "It's the principle" to excuse something that is just purely illogical!

This made my head hurt and the day is still young!

[AFpheonix]

What made my head explode was that the jury aquitted him. What the frack.

[Lace Neil Singer]

At least the moron had to fork out for his lawyer's bills. Unless... I'm waiting for the sequel when Mr Moron takes his own lawyer to court to avoid paying. X_x

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I give mad props to the person who called him "Colonel Cheap-O" on the Times Web site.

[Amalthea]

That's what I am thinking. I hate it when people say "It's the principle" to excuse something that is just purely illogical!

This reminded me of a quote I found the other day when I was looking for a quote on stupid people to put in my siggy.

"When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty." - George Bernard Shaw

[Darkmage]

The really scarry part...

Is that this is now a legal precedent. Someone else can now skip on the bill and cite this outcome as a precedent as long as they are clever enough to cite the same reason for not paying. Now, I am not a lawyer so I may be incorrect in my understanding of how precedent works in the U.S. court system, but if I did get it wrong, it certainly won't stop others from trying.