A French seller and a Tunisian buyer entered into a contract for the sale of a certain quantity of herbicidal products the former had purchased from a Portuguese manufacturer. The Tunisian company resold the goods to a French final customer. A dispute arose when the goods turned out to be defective and unfit for their ordinary use. The Court of second instance sentenced the French seller and the Portuguese manufacturer to pay damages to both the Tunisian company and its final customer. The Portuguese manufacturer then appealed before the Supreme Court.
In confirming the lower Court's decision, the Supreme Court rejected the plaintiff's argument that the dispute was to be decided under CISG. Althought perfectly aware of the international character of the sales contract, the parties had in fact referred in their pleadings and during the proceedings only to the relevant provisions of French law. As a result, the parties were considered as having implicitly excluded the application of the Convention to their contract (Art. 6 CISG). |