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The Seller's Liability for Sale of Faulty Goods in Scots Law

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The Seller's Liability for Sale of Faulty Goods in Scots Law McClelland, Paul (2015) The se ller's liability for sale of faulty goods in Scots law. LL.M(R) thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6503/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] THE SELLER’S LIABILITY FOR SALE OF FAULTY GOODS IN SCOTS LAW Paul McClelland Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of LLM by Research University of Glasgow School of Law College of Social Sciences April 2015 ABSTRACT Through detailed review of the primary sources, this thesis provides a thematic and historical picture of the law of the seller’s liability for the sale of faulty goods, and attempts to describe the boundaries and developments of the legal tools available to the aggrieved purchaser. The thesis begins with an outline of the various routes to liability in classical and Justinianic Roman law, and goes on to show how these forms of liability were understood by early Scots law. It then divides discussion of the Scots law into four principal periods, beginning with the law described by Stair and ending with the modern system of concomitant liability under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 as amended and for error induced by misrepresentation. It is concluded that liability for sale of faulty goods has existed in various forms throughout the modern era of Scots law: firstly, in fraud, or presumed fraud; then in the terms of the contract; then in statute or in error after the recognition of a doctrine of innocent misrepresentation. It is argued that error was not in Scots law a historically relevant means of redress in sales of faulty goods. i CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Liability for faults in Roman law .............................................................................. 4 Civil liability in early Roman law ........................................................................................... 5 Aedilician liability in early Roman law .................................................................................. 7 Liability under the law of Justinian ....................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Fraud and insufficiency ........................................................................................... 14 Stair ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Contract as the source of obligations ................................................................................ 15 Liability in reparation ........................................................................................................ 18 Error in substantia ............................................................................................................. 21 Case Law ............................................................................................................................... 23 Latent insufficiency ........................................................................................................... 24 Express upholding ............................................................................................................. 26 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 3: Warrandice I ............................................................................................................ 30 Bankton ................................................................................................................................. 30 Erskine .................................................................................................................................. 34 Case law ................................................................................................................................ 36 Implied warrandice ........................................................................................................... 36 Fitness for purpose ............................................................................................................ 40 ii Intentional deceit ............................................................................................................... 42 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 4: Warrandice II ........................................................................................................... 45 Hume ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Brown .................................................................................................................................... 52 Bell ........................................................................................................................................ 56 Case law ................................................................................................................................ 59 Implied warrandice ........................................................................................................... 59 Fitness for purpose ............................................................................................................ 61 Statutory reform .................................................................................................................... 62 Unsuccessful attempts to claim warrandice ...................................................................... 63 Meaning of express warranty and relationship with description ...................................... 64 Meaning of fitness for special purpose ............................................................................. 67 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 5: Contemporary law I ................................................................................................. 69 Sale of Goods Act 1893 ........................................................................................................ 70 Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973 ........................................................................ 72 Sale of Goods Act 1979 ........................................................................................................ 74 Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1992 ..................................................................................... 75 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 76 Chapter 6: Contemporary Law II .............................................................................................. 77 iii Misrepresentation .............................................................................................................. 78 Falsity ................................................................................................................................ 83 Inducement ........................................................................................................................ 83 Remedies ........................................................................................................................... 84 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 88 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 90 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 92 iv DECLARATION I declare that, except where explicit reference is made to the contribution of others, that this dissertation is the result of my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree at the University of Glasgow or any other institution. Signature: Printed name: v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank: Ernest Metzger and John MacLeod for our discussions, many of which led to the ideas now put down in this thesis; Kay Munro of the Glasgow University Library, who enthusiastically helped me find much of the interesting material; and the Clark Foundation for Legal Education and the Modern Law Review for supporting my research financially. Thanks also go to my parents, Karen and Peter McClelland, and my amazing fiancée Geraldine. Without their continued support and patience I would not have finished this thesis. vi INTRODUCTION The law surrounding the seller’s obligations as to the quality of goods supplied to a buyer has been described as being at “the very heart of the law of sale”1. However,
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