Australia 3 November 2000 Federal Court (South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club v News Ltd)
[Cite as: http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/001103a3.html]
DATE OF DECISION:
JURISDICTION:
TRIBUNAL:
JUDGE(S):
CASE NUMBER/DOCKET NUMBER: New South Wales District Registry N 1295 of 1999
CASE NAME:
CASE HISTORY: Unavailable
SELLER'S COUNTRY: Australia (plaintiff)
BUYER'S COUNTRY: Australia (plaintiff)
GOODS INVOLVED: Not a contract for sale of goods
APPLICATION OF CISG: No [obiter dicta reference to CISG]
APPLICABLE CISG PROVISIONS AND ISSUES
Key CISG provisions at issue:
Classification of issues using UNCITRAL classification code numbers:
Descriptors:
CITATIONS TO ABSTRACTS OF DECISION
(a) UNCITRAL abstract: Unavailable
(b) Other abstracts
English: Unilex database <http://www.unilex.info/case.cfm?pid=1&do=case&id=1142&step=Abstract>
CITATIONS TO TEXT OF DECISION
Original language (English): Austl.II website <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal%5fct/2000/1541.html> [excerpt presented below]; [2000] FCA 1541 (3 November 2000)
Translation: Unavailable
CITATIONS TO COMMENTS ON DECISION
English: Jacobs et al., 17 Mealey's International Arbitration Reports (August 2002) 24
Go to Case Table of Contents FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
[2000] FCA 1541 (3 November 2000) Last Updated: 3 November 2000 [reference is to Austl.II publication update]
(...)
393 3. Australian law has not yet committed itself unqualifiedly to the proposition that every contract imposes on each party a duty of good faith and fair dealing in contract performance and enforcement: cf Restatement, Second, Contracts, § 205; and see generally the discussion in Renard Constructions (ME) Pty Ltd v Minister for Public Works(1992) 26 NSWLR 234 at 263ff; Service Station Association Ltd v
Berg Bennett & Associates Pty Ltd (1993) 45 FCR 84 at 95-97; Hughes Aircraft Systems International v
Airservices Australia (1997) 76 FCR 151 at 191ff. Such a duty has been accepted as an implied legal
incident of particular classes of contract: Alcatel Australia Ltd v Scarcella (1998) 44 NSWLR 349;
Hughes Aircraft Systems International v. Airservices Australia, above; and particularly contracts of a
commercial character: Garry Rogers Motors (Aust) Pty Ltd v Subaru (Aust) Pty Ltd (1999) ATPR § 41-703 at 43,014; notwithstanding the supposed uncertainty in defining the concept of "good faith and fair
dealing"' see generally Aiton Australia Pty Ltd v. Transfield Pty Ltd (1999) 153FLR 236 at 255ff. I would
note in passing that the supposed uncertainty with "good faith" terminology has not deterred every State
and Territory legislature in this country form enacting into domestic law the provisions of Article 7(1) of
the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: eg Sale of Goods
(Vienna Convention) Act 1986 (NSW).
394 4. Importantly for the purposes of the present case, recent decisions suggest that the implied duty of
good faith and fair dealing ordinarily would not operate so as to restrict decisions and actions, reasonably
taken, which are designed to promote the legitimate interests of a party and which are not otherwise in
breach of an express contractual term: Garry Rogers Motors (Aust) Pty Ltd v Subaru (Aust) Pty Ltd,
above, 43,014; see also Asia Television Ltd v Tau's Entertainment Pty Ltd [2000] FCA 254 at para 77;
Advance Fitness Corporation Pty Ltd v. Bondi Diggers Memorial & Sporting Club Ltd [1999] NSWSC
264 at para 122; Far Horizons Pty Ltd v McDonald's Australia Ltd [2000] VSC 310; and see further
below, "Other Possibilities". (...)
Case text (excerpt)
Pace Law School
Institute of International Commercial Law - Last updated October 26, 2006