Can you sue your tailor for your suit?
By Aiman R Khan
Imagine that your wedding is in a month. Excited, you visit your favourite suit store to select the fabric for your sherwani (long coat). You find the perfect one, and the tailor takes your measurements. While you are leaving the cash counter, you are handed a slip indicating the delivery date. Lets say they give you a date which is a week before your wedding day. You feel relieved that theres plenty of time to fix any errors after the first trial fitting.
You visit the shop on the given date, but they tell you it is not ready yet. Sir, the sherwani will be given to you in due time. You can rest assured that it will fit you perfectly! the confidant shop owner reassures you. Brimming with confidence, he tells you to pick up your sherwani on the morning of your wedding day. You return home, feeling sceptical about whether theyll be able to finish it on time.
You spend the night before your special day sleepless, worrying over the sherwani, since you know its significance on the day. You cant just wear any old outfit picked from your wardrobe. You hurry to the shop the next morning to face your worst fear.
Sir, we are extremely sorry, last night one of our tailors left the iron on too long and a part of your sherwani got badly burnt, says the now apologetic shop owner. You cannot believe what you have just heard! The ceremony is just a few hours away. You start to think of a remedy, but hardly find any. The sherwani you paid for was made-to-measure. No other would fit you.
But as you are our respected customer, a full refund is available, adds the shop owner, forcing a smile. But getting back your money wont fix anything. Furious, you want to take him to court. And you can.
In such a situation, you may seek specific performance of contract against the shop owner under Section 12 of The Specific Relief Act, 1877. It is a form of remedy, granted upon the discretion of the court by which a party to a contract is compelled to do what was previously agreed upon.
According to S12, the court may enforce a specific performance when the act agreed to be done is in the performance of a trust; when there is no standard to ascertain the damage that has been caused for the non-performance of the act; when financial compensation wont be enough to provide an adequate relief for the non-performance of the agreed act; and when it is clear that compensation cannot he achieved from the non-performance.
If we try to fit your situation in the above mentioned criteria, you may be entitled to get back your sherwani just at the right time. The coat was promised to be delivered in the morning. There was a trust present here, since you relied on the shop owners assurance. Your wedding day is a special event in your life. You cannot wear a burnt sherwani in front of your beloved and all those guests! Not even triple the price of the item as compensation would be enough.
Therefore, a suit for specific performance would mean that the contract would be treated as if it were never obstructed. In your situation, the court may order the tailor to make a new sherwani with the same fabric and deliver it to you on time. And by the courts order, your tailor would definitely be on his toes to give it to you at the right time!
The writer is an apprentice advocate at Dhaka Judge Court.
Photo: Internet
