Here are its facts, with my contemporary reaction in brackets:
"The Hanna Group operates a high-end restaurant in Orange
County. Hagestad and his wife (collectively, the Hagestads) were apparently
so impressed with their dining experience there in March 2022, that they
contacted the Hanna Group’s chief operating officer, Dave Hanna, after their
meal. [I do not generally eat at high-end restaurants, and definitely have never contacted a restaurant's COO after my meal.]
They told Dave Hanna that their son would be competing at the
Masters the next month in Augusta, Georgia. [My children are quite far from being sufficiently good at golf to qualify for, say, the Masters.] They asked the Hanna Group
to provide meals for their family and friends for the entire week of the
Masters. [I generally do not provide meals for my entire friend group for an entire week; perhaps I am a poor host?]
The Hagestads and Dave Hanna corresponded as the Masters
approached. The Hagestads expected between 20 to 30 people for each meal. [I do not even have that many friends, much less that would I decide to feed that many people for a week.] Dave Hanna sent them a proposed menu that included breakfast and dinner
for seven days, which the Hagestads approved. The parties did not sign a
written contract. Nor did they ever discuss the price of the requested food and
services. [I'm a lawyer; I most assuredly would not make a similar mistake.]
At the Masters, the Hanna Group provided the Hagestads with
breakfast, dinner, and a full bar for five days, serving an average of 25 guests
per meal. The Hagestads praised the Hanna Group’s food and service. They
sent Dave Hanna a text message after the Masters saying, “We just want to thank you for everything this week. The staff, the food, everything was
perfect.”
Then the bill came.
The Hanna Group sent Hagestad an invoice for $74,960, which
included a $5,000 discount. Hagestad balked at the amount." [Okay, on this one, I'll admit, I would have balked too. Seventy five grand for a week? Wow.]
The case goes to trial. (The parties really couldn't find a middle ground in this one?!) The jury awards the restaurant a little over $60,000. The resulting appeal is about some RFAs and some taxed reporter costs, and the Court of Appeal ends up affirming.
I clearly am not in the same league as these people. By my calculations, even at $60,000, and even at the maximum 25 people for 7 days for breakfast and dinner, that's $171/meal. For dinner; okay, maybe, I guess. But for breakfast?! That's a lot, no?
Admittedly, there was also an open bar. I suspect that added a fair piece to the total.
Still. I love my friends. But not at sixty grand a week.
One last thing. I noticed that Justice Moore's opinion drops a footnote that reads: "While the proposed menu included meals for seven days, the record
indicates that the Hagestads unexpectedly left the Masters two days early." (Which, by the way, means that the average meal actually cost around $240 per person.) The word "unexpectedly" struck me as unusual, but it wasn't hard to figure out what this really referred to. The Hagestads presumably left because -- though the opinion doesn't mention it -- their son shot a 160 during the first two days, thereby missing the cut by a solid 12 strokes. On that front, I'm fully with the Hagestads; I ain't sticking around the Masters after my kid's out of the thing either.
Regardless: Different worlds.
