Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 3215

The obligation of every person enriched at another's expense without lawful cause to pay the impoverished person, within the limits of his enrichment, an amount that remedies his loss. Article 262 of the Civil Code. - Cause is the legal source conferring the enrichment and may be a contract or a judgment. Where enrichment lacks lawful cause. The impoverished person is entitled to recover from the enriched person the lesser of the 2 amounts: the value of the debtor's enrichment or the value of the creditor's impoverishment. - Nullity of a contract. Its effect: its nonexistence from the time of its conclusion and the elimination of every effect of its performance. Its consequence: restoring everything to its original state and each contracting party recovering what he gave. If either contracting party is unable to return what he received or benefited from as a result of - 597 - Obligation performance of the void contract, the judge may order him to render equivalent performance. The basis therefor. - Assessment of compensation guided by the rights that would have been due to the impoverished party under the void contract. A matter for the trial court, provided it is reasonable. - Seeking equivalent performance for the first time on appeal. Permissible. Its condition: the original claim remains unchanged. Article 144/3 of the Civil Procedure Law. - The court of first instance's dismissal of the claim for the value of the share purchased in the company because the agreement to purchase it was void does not preclude claiming before the Court of Appeal compensation equivalent to the benefit accruing to the purchasers from that share.