Hi Steve-
Since I've been thinking of the Doctrine of Unjust Enrichment all day since you called while I was at HEB, I've worked up a simple presentation to a jury... I bought some milk, bread and eggs, and three muffins. I don't know what they all cost together. I went to the cash register, she scanned the bar codes, I paid her $17.84 on my card. The money will clear from my account to HEB account, probably before midnight. The goal from the clearing company is T+3, or three business days, GMT. I paid a fair price, and HEB made a fair profit. I could have unjustly enriched myself if I had concealed three candy bars in my pocket with my phone. I did not. The cash register lady could have unjustly enriched herself if she had overwritten the cash register by typing in $47.61. Neither of us unjustly enriched ourselves. If HEB were a mortgage company, they could unjustly enrich themselves in many ways- 1. Charge a processing fee for each item. With 18 eggs, possibly a deal of maximum eight items. 2. Come to my refrigerator next day and seize uneaten items for resale to other customers. Charge me $30 for recovery and refrigerated transport, plus debit of the original purchase value. If the other customers only pay $4.21, the government will pay the balance so they are whole. 3. Meanwhile, I am cold and hungry, and pissed. :)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorDave McCrae is a retired engineer now settled in Oatmeal, Texas. I trained as a nuclear physicist and for a brief time was able to hold positions operating a small cyclotron, a large computer (CDC-6400 BITD) and as a medical researcher. After a weekend in Cleveland, and learning to weld, I left academia and joined Clan MacRae, constructing large buildings, setting complex machinery, devising manufacturing processes, and operating deepwater submersibles. I had too much fun, and made too much money. The cyclotron was kind of quaint, punch card computers are pretty much extinct, and we still have issues with cancer. Archives
November 2018
Categories |