Damage Suits: Vin Triste

In the little Loire valley town of Saint-Bouize, where the good life consists of lolling in the two local bistros and sipping the cool white wines of Sancerre and Pouilly, Farmer Georges Delair's motorbike accident was a particular tragedy. The day an auto knocked him over the handle bars onto his head, life turned drab indeed for the large, affable man. Pains in his head and neck impaired his work. Even worse, the 33-year-old Delair told the court: "Before, white wine made me gay, joyous and optimistic. Now it gives me terrible headaches, and after a few glasses I become sad or vicious." For Georges, vin du pays had become vin triste.

For his headaches and his hospital expenses, Delair was awarded a total of $7,300 in damages from the car driver. And under a legal principle known as prejudice d'agrément, which gives a Frenchman the right to some recompense for being deprived of his favorite pleasure, the court threw in a symbolic gesture to take care of the farmer's lost taste for wine: an additional ten francs ($2).