CISG CASE PRESENTATION

Spain: Audiencia Provincial de Navarra 27 March 2000

Case Law on UNCITRAL texts (CLOUT) abstract no. 397 [cited as Audiencia Provincial de Pamplona (Pamplona is a city in the Province of Navarra)]

Reproduced with permission from UNCITRAL

The seller delivered to the buyer a minimum quantity of 184 items of equipment of North American manufacture designed for cooling and heating drinking water. The contract incorporated a five-year warranty clause.

Prior to the time of performance by the buyer of its obligation to pay for the delivered consignments of the purchased equipment, i.e. early January 1997, the equipment began to develop certain operational defects. The buyer did not pay the agreed price in accordance with articles 54 ff. and 71 of the Convention. The buyer also invoked articles 36, 44, 50 and 74 of the Convention. The buyer itself undertook the repair of the drinking water dispensers without informing the seller of the defects or faults in the appliances; only by fax did it communicate the defects in “a single” equipment item.

This lack of communication gave rise to the Court’s rejection of the buyer’s claim “since the buyer did not demand the enforcement of the manufacturer’s warranty." Moreover, insofar as the buyer received the sold goods at the agreed place and had the possibility of examining them, “the buyer cannot exercise the rights arising under article 45 of the Convention."

Furthermore, the notification of defects in the purchased items -- in effect, the lack of conformity of the goods -- has to be made by the buyer to the seller within a reasonable time, in accordance with article 39(1). The Court ruled that the period between autumn 1997, without being more specific, and 11 May 1988 was not a reasonable time. Even though not expressly stated by the Court, the unreasonableness of that period is based on its extreme length.