Chapter 18 Notes Flashcards
To transfer and deliver or tender delivery the goods as stated in the contract. (conforming)
Basic Obligation of the Seller or Lessor
Accept and pay for the conforming goods.
Basic Duty of the Buyer or Lessee
Include those specified by the agreement, by custom, and by the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).
Duties and Obligations
Can never be disclaimed; “every contract ir duty within this Act imposes an obligation of good faith in its performance or enforcement.”
UCC’s Good Faith Provision
Honesty in fact.
- Applies to both parties to a sales contract and provides a framework for the entire agreement.
Good Faith
Honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing in the trade.
Good Faith for Merchants
Goods that confrom to contract specifications in every way.
Conforming Goods
A seller’s or lessor’s act of placing conforming goods at the disposal of the buyer or lessee and providing whatever notification is reasonably necessary to enable to buyer or lessee to take delivery.
- Must occur at a reasonable hour and in a reasonable manner.
- Must be tendered in a single delivery, unless the parties have agreed on installment.
Tender of Delivery
Delivered in several lots.
Installment
UCC provides for a place of delivery only if the contract does not indicate the place where the buyer or lessor will take possession. If contract does not indicate where the goods will be delivered, the place for delivery will be:
- The seller’s place of business
- The seller’s residence, if the seller has no business location.
- The location of the goods, if both parties know at the time of contracting that the goods are located somewhere other than the seller’s business.
Place of Delivery
The seller fulfills the obligation to deliver the goods through either a shipment contract or destination contract.
Delivery Via Carrier
The seller must do the following:
- Put the good in the hands of the carrier.
- Make a contract for their transportation that is reasonable according to the nature of the goods and their value.
- Obtain and promptly deliver or tender to the buyer any documents necessary to enable the buyer to obtain posesession of the goods from the carrier.
- Promptly notify the buyer that shipment has been made.
Shipment Contracts
- The seller fails to notify the buyer that shipment has been made
- A material loss of the goods or a significant delay results
Buyer can Reject the Shipment Only if:
The seller must give the buyer appropriate notice about the delivery and hold the goods at the buyer’s disposal for a reasonable length of time.
- Must also provide the buyer with any documents of title necessary to enable to buyer to obtain delivery from the carrier.
Destination Contracts
The sellor or lessor has an obligation to ship or tender conforming goods, and the buyer or lessee is required to accept and pay for the goods according to the terms of the contract. Under the common law, the seller is obligated to deliver goods that conformed to the terms of the contract in every detail.
- UCC preserves this rule by stating that if the goods or tender of delivery fail in any respect to conform to the contract, the buyer or lessee has the right to accept the good, reject the entire shipment, or accept part and reject part.
- Corollary to this rule- if the good conform in every respect, the buyer or lessee does not have a right to reject the goods.
The Perfect Tender Rule
- Agreement of the parties
- The right to cure
- Substitution of carriers
- Installment contracts
- Commercial impracticability
- Commercial impracticability and partial performance
- Destruction of identified goods
- The right of assurance
- The duty of cooperation
Exceptions to the Perfect Tender Rule
If parties have agreed, for instance, that defective goods or parts will not be rejected if the seller or lessor is able to repair or replace them within a reasonable period of time, the perfect tender rule does not apply.
Agreement of the Parties
Refers to the right of the seller or lessor to repair, adjust, or replace defective or nonconforming goods. Can attempt to cure if the following are true:
- A delivery is rejected because the gods were noconforming
- The time for performance has not yet expired.
- The seller or lessor provides timely notice to the buyer or lessee of the intention to cure.
- The cure can be made within the contract time of performance.
The Right to Cure
Even if this happens, the seller or lessor can still cure if he or she had reasonable grounds to believe tha the nonconforming tender would be acceptable to the buyer or lessee.
Time for Performace has Expired- Right to Cure
A seller or lessor may tender nonconforming goods with this. This may also serve as “reasonable grounds” for the seller or lessor to believe that the buyer or lessee will accept the nonconfroming tender.
Price Allowance (Discount)- Right to Cure
To reject, the buyer or lessee must inform the seller of the particular defect. If the defect is not disclosed, and if it is one that the seller or lessor could have cured, the buyer or lessee cannot later assert the defect as defense.
- Generally buyers and lessees must act in good faith and state specific reasons for refusing to accept goods.
The Right to Cure Substantially Restricts the Right of the Buyer or Lessee to Reject Goods
In a situation where an agreed-on manner of delivery may become impracticable or unavailable through no fault of either party, if a commercially reasonable substitute is available, this substitute must be used and will constitute sufficient tender to the buyer.
- The seller or lessor is required to arrance for the substitute carrier and normally is responsible for any additional shipping costs (unless the contract states otherwise).
Substitution of Carriers
A contract that requires or authorizes delivery in two or more separate lots to be accepted and paid for seprately.
- Buyer or lessee can reject this only if the nonconformity substantially impairs the value of the installment and cannot be cured.
- If the buyer or lessee failts to notify the seller or lessor of the rejection, and subsequently accepts a nonconforming installment, the contract is reinstated.
Installment Contracts
One or more of the nonconforming installments substantially impair the value of the whole contract.
- UCC strictly limits rejection of cases of substantial nonconformity.
The Entire Intallment Contract is Breached Only When:
Occurrences unforseen by either party when a contract was made may make performance commercially impracticable.
- Rule of perfect tender no longer applies
- Seller or lessor must notify the buyer or lessee as soon as practicable that there will be a delay or nondelivery.
- This doctrine does not extend to problems that could have been forseen. (such as cost rising due to inflation).
- The nonoccurrence of the contingency must have been a basic assumption on which the contract was made.
Commercial Impracticability
An unforseen event only partially affects the capacity of the seller or lessor to perform. The seller or lessor can partially fulfill the contract but cannot tender total performance.
- The seller or lessor is required to distribute any remaining goods or deliveries fairly and reasonably among the parties to whom it is contractually obligated to deliver the goods.
- The buyer or lessee must receive notice of the allocation and has the right to accept or reject it.
Commercial Impracticability and Partial Performance
If the goods were identified at the time the contract was formed, the parties are excused from performance.
- If the goods are partially destroyed, the buyer or lessee can inspect them and either treat the contract as void or accept the goods with a reduction of the contract price.
Destruction of Identified Goods
If one party to a contract has “reasonable grounds” to believe that the other party will not perform as contracted, he or she may “demand adequate assurance of due performance” from the other party.
- Demand must be made in writing or electronic record.
- Until such assurance is received, he or she may “suspend” further performance without liability.
- Reasonable grounds- determined by commercial standards.
- If not forthcoming within a reasonable time (not to exceed 30 days), the failure to respond may be treated as a repudiation of the contract.
The Right of Assurance
The UCC provides an exception to the perfect tender doctrine if one party fails to cooperate. When cooperation is not forthcoming, the other party can suspend her or his own performance without liability and hold the uncooperative party in breach or proceed to perform the contract in any reasonable manner.
The Duty of Cooperation
The main obligation of the buyer or lessee under a sales or lease contract is to pay for the goods tendered in accordance with the contract.
- Payment
- Right of inspection
- Acceptance
- Partial acceptance
Obligations of the Buyer or Lessee
In the absence of any specific agreement, the buyer or lessee must make payment at the time and place the goods are received.
- When sale is made on credit- buyer is obligated to pay according to the specified credit terms, not when the goods are received. The credit period usually begins on the date of shipment.
- Lease agreement- a lessee must make the lease payment that was specified in the contract.
- can be made by any means agreed on by the parties- cash, or any other method generally acceptable in the commercial world.
- If seller demands cash- buyer must be given reasonable time to obtain it.
Payment
Unless the parties otherwise agree, or for C.O.D. (collect on delivery) transactions, the buyer or lessee has an absolute right to inspect the goods before making any payment.
- If goods are not what were ordered- the buyer or lessee has no duty to pay.
- An opportunity for inspection is therefore a condition precedent to the right of the seller or lessor to enforce payment.
- What is reasonable is determined by custom of the trade, past practices of the parties
- The buyer bears costs of inspecting the goods but if the goods are rejected because they are not conforming, the buyer can recover the costs of inspection from the seller.
Right of Inspection
After having had a reasonable opportunity to inspect the goods, the buyer or lessee can demonstrate acceptance in any of the following ways:
- The buyer or lessee indicates (by words or conduct) to the seller or lessor that the goods are conforming or that he or she will retain them in spite of their nonconformity.
- The buyer or lessee fails to reject the goods within a reasonable period of time
- In sales contracts, the buyer performs any act inconsistent with the seller’s ownership.
Acceptance
If some of the goods delivered do not conform to the contract and the seller or lessor has failed to cure, the buyer or lessee can make a partial acceptance.
- Same is true if the nonconformity was not reasonably discoverable before acceptance.
- A buyer or lessee cannot accept less than a single commercial unit.
Partial Acceptance
A unit of goods that, by commercial usage, is viewed as a “single whole” that cannot be divided without material impariment of the character of the unit, its market value, or its use.
- Can be a single article, a set of articles, a quantity, or any other unit treated in the trade as a single whole for purposes of sale.
Commercial Unit
- Possible responses to repudiation
- A repudiation by me retracted
Anticipatroy Repuidation
The nonbreaching party has a choice of two responses:
- Treat the repudiation as a final breach by pursuing a remedy.
- Wait to see if the repudiating party will deicde to honor the contract despite the avowed intention to renege (go back on a promise).
- In either situation, the nonbreaching party may suspend performance.
Possible Responses to Repudiation
The UCC permits the breaching party to “retract” his or her repudiation (subject to some limitations).
- Can be done by any method that clearly indicates the party’s intent to perform.
- Once retration is made, the rights of the repudiating party under the contract are reinstated.
- There can be no retraction if since the tie of the repudiation, the other party has cancelled or materially changed position or otherwise indicated that the repudiation is final.
A Repudiation May be Retracted
These remedies range from retaining the goods to requiring the breaching party’s performance under the contact. The general purpose of these remedies is to put the aggrieved party “in as good a position as if the other party had fully performed.”
- Remedies under the UCC are cumulative
- A party still may not recover twice for the same harm.
Remedies for Breach
An innocent party to a breached sales or lease contract is not limited to one exclusive remedy.
Cumulative
Depend on the circumtances at the time of the breach. Relevant factors include which party has possession of the goods, whether the goods are in transit, and whether the buyer or lessee has rejected or accepted the goods.
Remedies of the Seller or Lessor