Switzerland 29 June 1998 Appellate Court Valais (Sports clothing case)
[Cite as: http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/980629s1.html]
DATE OF DECISIONS:
JURISDICTION:
TRIBUNAL:
JUDGE(S):
CASE NUMBER/DOCKET NUMBER: CI 97 288
CASE NAME:
CASE HISTORY: Unavailable
SELLER'S COUNTRY: Italy (plaintiff)
BUYER'S COUNTRY: Switzerland (defendant)
GOODS INVOLVED: Sports clothing
SWITZERLAND: Tribunal Cantonal du Valais (IIe Cour Civile) 29 June 1998
Case law on UNCITRAL texts (CLOUT) abstract no. 256
Reproduced with permission from UNCITRAL
The plaintiff, an Italian clothing sales company, filed a lawsuit against the buyer, a Swiss company, requesting payment of the purchase price. The defendant buyer pleaded late delivery and lack of conformity of the goods.
The court found that the parties never had agreed on a final date of delivery and that the delivery had taken place within a reasonable time after the conclusion of the contract (article 33 CISG). It held that notification of lack of conformity given to the seller seven to eight months after delivery was by far too late (article 39(1) CISG). The interest rate on the purchase price was determined by application of the law governing the contract, which in this case was Italian law (article 7(2) CISG).
APPLICATION OF CISG: Yes [Article 1(1)(a)]
APPLICABLE CISG PROVISIONS AND ISSUES
Key CISG provisions at issue:
Classification of issues using UNCITRAL classification code numbers:
33C [Time for delivery where contract does not provide: reasonable time after contract's
conclusion]; 39A [Requirement to notify seller of lack of conformity: buyer must notify seller within
reasonable time]; 78B [Interest on delay in receiving price: rate of interest (determined by recourse to domestic
gap-filling law]
Descriptors:
CITATIONS TO OTHER ABSTRACTS OF DECISION
English: Unilex database <http://www.unilex.info/case.cfm?pid=1&do=case&id=366&step=Abstract>
German: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Internationales und Europäisches Recht (SZIER)/Revue suisses de droit international et de droit européen (1999) 193
CITATIONS TO TEXT OF DECISION
Original language (French): CISG-online.ch website <http://www.cisg-online.ch/cisg/urteile/420.pdf>; Unilex database <http://www.unilex.info/case.cfm?pid=1&do=case&id=366&step=FullText>
Translation: Unavailable
CITATIONS TO COMMENTS ON DECISION
English: Kuoppala, Examination of the Goods under the CISG and the Finnish Sale of Goods Act (2000) § 4.4.1.4 [analysis of related articles 38, 39, 40 and 44 (includes digests of relevant material in many CISG cases; also digests cases under a domestic sales code that is patterned, for the most part, after the CISG)]; Liu Chengwei, Recovery of interest (November 2003) n.152; René Henschel, Conformity of Goods in International Sales Governed by CISG, pdf access at Nordic Journal of Commercial Law, Issue 2004 #1 <http://www.njcl.utu.fi> p. 11; CISG-AC advisory opinion on Examination of the Goods and Notice of Non-Conformity [7 June 2004] (this case and related cases cited in addendum to opinion); [2004] S.A. Kruisinga, (Non-)conformity in the 1980 UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: a uniform concept?, Intersentia at 27, 38, 53; [2005] Schlechtriem & Schwenzer ed., Commentary on UN Convention on International Sale of Goods, 2d (English) ed., Oxford University Press, Art. 33 para. 15; Henschel, The Conformity of Goods in International Sales, Forlaget Thomson (2005) 286
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