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Japanese high court reaches verdict on if late-pizza-delivery trauma is worth 100,000 yen

Casey Baseel Jul 22, 2024
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Kyoto man’s half-year quest for justice ends with very definitive answer.

Last Thursday, Osaka High Court judge Tetsuji Sato was tasked with reaching a verdict for a lawsuit filed by a man living in Kyoto against Tokyo-based corporation Four Seeds. The man’s quest for his version of justice had been going on for over half a year, and even after the Kyoto District Court where he had initially filled the lawsuit had thrown his suit out, he was determined to keep fighting, filing an appeal which eventually landed the litigation in Judge Sato’s lap.

The Kyoto man was seeking damages of 100,000 yen (US$625) from Four Seeds, Inc., claiming that he was entitled to such compensation for the mental anguish he had suffered from one of the corporation’s subsidiaries, Pizza-La, a nationwide pizza delivery chain.

According to the man, last December he had ordered a pizza from Pizza-La for a Christmas party he was having with friends. So what foul deed did Pizza-La commit that turned what one would expect to be a fun evening into 100,000 yen’s worth of trauma? They delivered his pizza 52 minutes late.

“The Pizza-La website emphasizes that their pizzas will be delivered on time, so the company is sufficiently aware of the significant impact late delivery can have,” the plaintiff asserted, adding “30 minutes is, in accordance with socially accepted wisdom, the maximum amount of lateness that can be tolerated.”

Unfortunately for the plaintiff, Judge Sato did not see things that way, and went so far as to call the idea that someone could suffer such psychological damage from a late pizza delivery “inconceivable” before repeating the district court’s ruling, dismissing the suit.

Slicing up the plaintiff’s claim like a piping-hot pepperoni, Judge Sato laid out his logic that a pizza order is an exchange of property: money for food. Because of the lateness of the delivery, Pizza-La had already refunded the man’s money, and Judge Sato rejected the idea that he had sustained any mental anguish damages beyond what could be cured by getting his money back (it’s unclear whether or not Pizza-La let him keep the pizza).

The man probably didn’t help his case when, during the trial, he mentioned “I prepared other food items and had my friends gather with the presupposition that the pizza would be delivered on time.” Ostensibly, he was trying to show how much careful planning had been ruined by Pizza-La’s lateness in order to establish just how painful the experience had been for him. However, the statement is also an admission that he was hanging out with his buddies and had other stuff to snack on while they waited for a pizza, which isn’t exactly the sort of story that earns you much sympathy, and especially not 100,000 yen.

Source: Asahi Shimbun
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