Consumer law, warranties and conditions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Consumer law, warranties and conditions - Essay Example The most suitable test to distinguish among two terms is that if the stipulation is such that its breach would be fatal to the rights of the aggrieved party, then such a stipulation is a condition and where it is not so, the stipulation is only a warranty (Marsh, 1999). In addition, an action for damages can also be brought by the plaintiff for non delivery of goods (Miller’s Machinery Co. Ltd. (1934) (ABA, 1997). In other words , a warranty is a stipulation collateral to the main purpose of the contract, the breach of which gives the aggrieved party a right to sue for damages only and not to void the contract (Whaley, 2009). It is also noteworthy that a breach of a condition may be treated as a breach of warranty but a breach of warranty is not a breach of a condition (Keichel, 2010) and (Mitchell, et. al. 2003). From this we can deduce that a condition forms the very basis of a contract but a warranty is only of secondary importance (Ghemawat, 2010). After the Sales of Good Act (SGA) 1979, the distinction between sale by description and sale of specific goods was removed. Now the seller is in much of a precarious position than it used to be under the operation of common law. The Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA) 1977, s.3, does not allow any seller to exclude liability in such a manner as Harry’s has attempted to do. From the events it turns out that Stubley Ltd. is a consumer in this case as their primary business is not buying cars for their directors and hence, this particular transaction will not be dealt with in the scope of business. Furthermore, under Section 12-15 of the Sales of Good Act there are seven implied terms in favor of the buyer and five of these have been ranked as conditions and two are regarded as warranties. The five statutory implied terms which are labeled as conditions are 1) title, 2) correspondence with description, 3) quality, 4) fitness for purpose and 5) correspondence