Aswan Engineering Establishment Co v Lupdine Ltd
Goods are of merchantable quality if they are fit for some of their usual purposes, and the seller is not liable for unusually severe conditions of use.
Facts
Lupdine sold a waterproofing compound in heavy duty plastic pails to Aswan, a company in Kuwait. The pails were shipped to Kuwait and left stacked in the sun on the quayside, in temperatures of up to 70 degrees Celsius. The pails collapsed, and the compound was lost. Aswan sued for breach of the implied condition of merchantable quality.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the pails were of merchantable quality. Lloyd LJ said that goods were of merchantable quality if they were fit for one or more of the purposes for which goods of that kind are commonly bought, and that the pails were suitable for most purposes, including export, in normal conditions. The extreme heat on the quayside in Kuwait was not something that the seller could reasonably have foreseen, so the pails were not unmerchantable because they could not withstand it.
Related cases on implied terms: title, description, quality and fitness
- Arcos Ltd v EA Ronaasen & Son [1933] AC 470
- Ashington Piggeries Ltd v Christopher Hill Ltd [1972] AC 441
- Beale v Taylor [1967] 1 WLR 1193
- Grant v Australian Knitting Mills Ltd [1936] AC 85
- Griffiths v Peter Conway Ltd [1939] 1 All ER 685
- Harlingdon & Leinster Enterprises Ltd v Christopher Hull Fine Art Ltd [1991] 1 QB 564
- Henry Kendall & Sons v William Lillico & Sons Ltd [1969] 2 AC 31
- Jewson Ltd v Boyhan [2003] EWCA Civ 1030
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