Reproduced with permission from the Cornell Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1995) 51-94
Martin Karollus [*]
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Article 5
According to CISG Article 5, the CISG does not apply to the seller's liability for death or personal injury caused by the goods. This provision should have been discussed by the OLG Düsseldorf in a case where an American seller delivered a machine to a German buyer [OLG Düsseldorf 2 July 1993].[94] The buyer resold the machine to Russia where it was used in an industrial plant. Unfortunately, defects in the machine caused an accident that killed one workman and injured another. The German buyer, liable to his Russian customer, sued the American seller for compensation, in effect demanding discharge from his liability.[95] The OLG Düsseldorf held that the CISG applied to this claim.[96] This seems wrong, since such a claim for indemnification should also be precluded by CISG Article 5.[97]
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* Professor of Law at the University of Bonn, Germany, from 1992 to February 1995. Currently, Professor of Law at the University of Linz, Austria. Address: Institut für Handels-und Wertpapierrecht, Universität Linz, A-4040 Linz-Auhof, Austria, Europe.
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94. Judgment of July 2, 1993, 1993 RIW 845.
95. See infra part VI.13.
96. In addition, the OLG Düsseldorf should not have applied the CISG because the United States opted out of Article 1(1)(b). See supra note 67 and accompanying text.
97. See W. Khoo, Article 5, in Commentary on the International Sales Law 49 (C.M. Bianca & M.J. Bonell eds., 1987); Schlechtriem, supra note 22, at 20; Rolf Herber, Art. 5: Ausschluß der Haftung für Tod oder Körperverletzung, in Kommentar zum Einheitlichen UN-Kaufrecht 79 (Ernst von Caemmerer & Peter Schlechtriem eds., 2d ed. 1995); Reinhart, supra note 19, at 25.
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