ABSTRACT
The main obstacle to a restitutionary award is the insistence that the claimant must have received nothing under the contract. Accordingly, a mere partial failure of consideration does not give rise to a restitutionary remedy,36 unless the contract is severable or easily apportionable. Thus, in Ebrahim Dawood Ltd v Heath (Est 1927) Ltd,37 a buyer was held to have justifiably rejected part of a consignment of steel sheets for which he had paid in advance. The court allowed him to recover a proportionate part of the price on the basis that he had received and accepted those consignments which were in accordance with the contract, but could reject those which did not conform, provided, as in this case, it was possible to sever the non-conforming goods from the remainder of the goods contracted for.38
