Legal Issues Faced by Amina in Purchasing a Product

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Contents
Solution 4.........................................................................................................................................2
Issue.................................................................................................................................................2
Relevant Law...............................................................................................................................2
Contractual issues........................................................................................................................2
Tortuous issues.............................................................................................................................4
Product liability issues.................................................................................................................6
Product safety issues....................................................................................................................6
Application of law...........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference List................................................................................................................................13

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Solution 4
Issue
Whether Amina has any kind of contractual, tortuous, product liability and product safety issues
against the manufacturer of the supplier of the product that is purchased by her?
Relevant Law
Every buyer or consumer when purchases any product from the supplier or the producer or the
manufacturer, then, it is necessary that the product so supplied must be adequate to use as per the
expectation of the consumer and the supplier, etc must have comply with their statutory duties
that are imposed upon them. However, if the product sold is not as per the standards or if the
statutory duties are not comply with by the suppliers, etc then, there are several legal issues that
might arise.
All the issues are analyses independently before applying them to the facts of the case.
Contractual issues
When any buyer purchases the goods from the seller, supplier and manufacture, then, a contract
is established amid them. The parties are required to comply with the express contractual term
that is made by the parties themselves. If the terms are not comply with then there is breach of
contract. Apart from the express terms, there are few implied terms which are made part of the
contract of sale under the Sales of Goods Act 1979 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which
must be comply with by the parties. If the implied terms are not comply with then the contract is
considered to be violated resulting in contractual liability on the defaulting party. Thus, some of
the implied terms that are made part of the contract and which must be fulfill by the contractual
parties includes1:
i. As per section 14 (2) of the 1979 Act, if any seller within the course of his business
sells the goods, then there is an implied term made part of the contract of sales that
the goods so sold must be of satisfactory quality and is held in Stevenson v Rogers2.
The goods are considered to be of satisfactory quality when the quality is of the
standard as expected by a reasonable man in the given situation. As per section 14
(2B) of the Act, the quality of the goods includes that the goods so supplied are for
1 Richard Stone, The Modern Law of Contract, (Psychology Press, 2005).
2 Stevenson v Rogers [1999] 1 All ER 613

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the purposes for which they are intend to be supplied or the goods must be of
satisfactory finish and appearance or are not defective or are safe to use and are
durable in nature. Generally the usability test is applied in order to understand
whether the goods supplied are of satisfactory quality. It is necessary that the goods
must be fit for the purpose for which it is commonly used in order to consider the
same of acceptable quality and is held in Aswan Engineering v Lupdine3. It is
necessary that if the unsatisfactory quality of the goods is bought to the knowledge of
the buyer before the purchase then the section has no applicability and is held in
Bartlett v Sidney Marcus ltd4;5
ii. Section 9 (1) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 submits that there is an implied term
that is made part of the contract of sale which implies that the goods so sold are of
satisfactory quality. It is the objective test which must be used in order to judge
whether the quality is satisfactory or not (section 9 (2)). The quality is consider to be
good if it is fit for purpose; if it is safe, free from minor defects, durable and is held in
Shine v General Guarantee Corp6.
iii. As per section 10 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, it is an implied term of the
contract of sale that the goods so sold are fit for the purpose so acquired.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, if the provisions of the Act are not comply with then the
major rights that are available to the consumer includes7:
i. Right to reject – the consumer has the right within thirty days to reject the goods if
the goods are found to be in violation of section and section 10 of the consumer
rights Act 2015 as there is breach of implied terms of the contract
ii. Right to replacement and repair
iii. Right to price reduction
3 Aswan Engineering v Lupdine [1987] 1 All ER 135.
4 Bartlett v Sidney Marcus ltd [1965] 1 WLR 1013.
5Elawresource, Statutory implied terms - The Consumer Rights Act 2015, Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and
Services Act 1982, (2018) <http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/Statutory-implied-terms.php>.
6 Shine v General Guarantee Corp [1988] 1 All ER 911.
7 Michael G. Bridge, Principles of English Commercial Law, (Oxford University Press, 2015).

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iv. Compensation can be claimed for personal injuries, consequential loss and the
damage caused to the property8
Tortuous issues
The law of tort is a common law principle which emphasis that every person must indulge in
such acts and omission which does not hamper the plaintiffs in any manner whatsoever. The
defendants are imposed with the legal duty of care against the plaintiffs who are considered to be
the neighbors of the defendant. Thus, the liability that is imposed on the defendants under the tort
law is the fault based liability.9
The law of negligence simply submits that every defendant must make sure that by no acts or
omissions of his any damage is caused to the plaintiff with whom he is sharing proximate
relationship. In Donoghue v Stevenson10, the defendant is considered to be negligent in his acts
or omissions when the legal duty of care is not carried on by him reasonably and because of such
breach of duty of care there is harm that is caused to the plaintiff which is not remote in nature.
The consumer plaintiff has the right to sue any person in the chain of supply for the damage
caused to him, that is, the supplier, producer or manufacturer of the product.11
In Donoghue v Stevens, it was held by Lord Atkin, that every manufacturer of the products owns
a duty of care against the consumer that the product manufacturer by him must not cause any
kind of damage to the consumer. This is the primary the legal case that was decided by the
House of Lords which imposed the liability of negligence upon the manufacturer. Later, the duty
of care under the law of negligence is also extended to the suppliers or the producers of the
products.12
However, every consumer has the right to bring an action of tortuous liability against the
manufacture or the supplier or the producer for incurring negligence against him provided there
are few essential elements which must be comply with and which includes:
8 Martin Ewen, Product Liability, (2017)
http://www.mondaq.com/uk/x/645772/Product+Liability+Safety/What+constitutes+an+unreasonable+failure+to+mediate.
9 Allan Beever, Rediscovering the Law of Negligence, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 30-May-2007).
10 Donoghue v Stevenson (1932).
11 James Plunkett, The Duty of Care in Negligence, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 08-Feb-2018).
12 John Charlesworth, Charlesworth and Percy on Negligence, (Sweet & Maxwell, 2011).