The Law on the sale of goods contracts states the expectations of all players in the sale of goods. The law outlines Rights, duties, obligations, and remedies of the buyer and the seller under all scenarios that may present themselves in the cause of the contract on the sale of goods. It defines when there is a sale of goods contract and when it ends. In the case study of Cabinet Co.’s company, the contract of sale of goods exists between Cabinet Co.’s company and the supplier of casters. The case presents Frank a receiving dock supervisor at Cabinet Co. whose responsibilities include supervising inspection of goods and stocking of materials used in the manufacture of cabinets on delivery. Upon acceptance of any materials, Frank notifies the accounting department to make payments on time. On 1st June, Frank receives a shipment of casters and stocks them at a secure corner of the receiving dock since the storage space is under renovation. However, Frank fails to inspect the goods at delivery but goes ahead to notify the department of accounting which makes payment within ten days to get discounts offered for early payments. On the 29th of June, Frank and his coworkers open the shipment for inspection as they store them in the storage facility. The review identifies that most of the casters are defective and unusable. This in turns disenables the company to fulfill contracts on rolling cabinets on time since they were not able to replace the casters on time. The paper, therefore, seeks to determine the duties, remedies, and obligations of Cabinet Co in this case.
Cabinet Co is the buyer in the sale of goods contract in the case. According to the law on sale of goods, the buyer’s duties include inspection of goods, acceptance of goods and payment of goods. The right to inspect dictates that the buyer must have time to inspect goods upon delivery to ensure they meet the requirement in the contract in terms of quality and quantity. In case the goods do not meet the requirements stated in the contract, the buyer can reject the goods and refuse to pay. The duty of acceptance refers to when the buyer takes the goods after acceptance. The law on sales of products provides that acceptance occurs by words, silence or action. Acceptance of words means the buyer informs the seller that he is taking the goods in the state they are in after an inspection whereas acceptance by silence refers to when the buyer does not reject the goods after inspection. Acceptance by action means that the buyer either uses or sells the goods or pays for the goods upon inspection. The other duty of the buyer is to make payment for the goods upon inspection and acceptance according to the terms of payment in the contract. After acceptance and payment, the customer loses the right to reject goods (Mayer et al., 2012). In this case, Frank the supervisor in charge of inspecting materials received by Cabinet Co. upon delivery fails to inspect the goods yet receives them stocks them and gives the accounting department a go ahead to make payment. This means that the contract is complete and closes off any room for further complaints from either party. As the law provides, failure by the buyer to inspect goods and detect any defects that are detectable by inspection invalidate his right to reject goods or waiver his acceptance. This means that Cabinet Co cannot dismiss the casters found defective two weeks after delivery as in the case.
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The intention of remedies according to the law on sale of goods is to ensure the affected party gets into the position he would have been if the defaulting party had performed. These remedies ensure that all the parties get the most out of the contract. The remedies availed to a buyer include canceling the contract in the case of breach or failure to deliver, reject goods or waiver acceptance in case the goods do not meet the requirements of the contract. Moreover, the buyer can seek a particular performance from the seller such as replacement of defective goods, or pay for the goods that meet the agreed standards and return the defective goods. In terms of the obligation, the buyer had a duty to examine the goods and alert the seller of any defects within a reasonable time. The buyer would then state how they intend to deal with the return of defective goods and rectify the situations (LawTeacher, 2013). In the case of Cabinet Co, there is no remedy applicable on the defective casters towards the seller since at the time of discovery of the defects an unreasonable period had passed to revoke their acceptance. The inspecting manager failed to inspect the caster upon delivery despite there being adequate time to examine them. The remedies available for Cabinet Co were to purchase new casters to replace the defective ones in a new contract. Cabinet Co had an obligation to deliver rolling cabinets to their customers hence had to find other means to acquire good casters to perform their part of the contract with the customers.
In conclusion, Cabinet Co accepts the casters by making payment to the supplier. On the other hand, it takes 20 days to discover that the casters are defective which a long time to revoke the acceptance is. Although two weeks is within the 30 days set to waiver an acceptance, the seller would argue negligence on the part of Cabinet Co to perform it inspection obligation, or that the goods would have been damaged within the period of two weeks they held them in the receiving dock. This is a case of negligence on the part of Frank the supervisor who failed to perform his inspection duty on delivery as require and took a long time to do so. Cabinet Co., therefore, has no case against the supplier.
References
Mayer, D. et al. (2012). The legal environment and advanced business law. Saylor Foundation . Retrieved on 5 June, 2017 from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/the-legal-environment-and-advanced-business-law/s13-02-performance-by-buyer.html#.
LawTeacher. (2013). Rights and obligations law essays . Retrieved on 5 June, 2017 from https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/commercial-law/rights-and-obligations-law-essays.php?cref=1.
