|
||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| An Irish buyer and a French producer of cooking pottery concluded a contract for the sale of baking dishes (cake pans, soufflé pans and plotters). Having received complaints from its own customers that the dishes had no resistance to high temperatures and broke when used in ovens, the buyer declared the contract avoided, invoking to that purpose CISG's provisions on lack of conformity, and claimed damages.
The Court of first instance (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Strasbourg, 17-11-1993) rejected the buyer's claim on the ground of French domestic law. The buyer appealed, arguing that the matter should be decided on the basis of CISG, under Article 1(1)(b) CISG. The Court held that CISG was not applicable as the parties had expressly chosen French law to govern their contract, thus excluding the application of the Convention by virtue of Art. 6 CISG. Finding for the buyer, the Court of appeal declared the contract avoided on the ground that the dishes, which for their shape were destined to be used in traditional and microwave ovens, presented defects in their making which caused them to be unfit for said purpose and thus non conforming. This decision was reversed by the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation, 17-12-1996, see Abstract and Full Text in UNILEX). |