Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
English Sale of Goods Law
Djakhongir Saidov*
CASES
122. Aston FFI (Suisse) SA v Louis Dreyfus Commodities Suisse SA 1
F.o.b.—inspection certificate—(non-)compliance of certificate with the contract—whether surveyor was to be GAFTA approved—whether GAFTA 49 and GAFTA Sampling Rules 124 incorporated—whether non-complying certificate deprives buyer of its right to reject non-conforming goods
This case arose out of an f.o.b. contract between buyers and sellers, dated 7 October 2011, whereby buyers purchased 30,000 MT (+/− 10% in their option) of “RUSSIAN MILLING WHEAT in bulk, Crop 2011 AS PER GASC TENDER TERMS”. The contract included the following clause:
“Quality AS PER GASC TENDER TERMS
Inspection
WEIGHT, QUALITY AND CONDITION FINAL AT TIME AND PLACE OF LOADING AS PER RELEVANT GASC TENDER. BUYER’S RIGHT TO APPOINT A 1st class GAFTA approved surveyor. Should there be a major discrepancy between the two analysis results carried out by the 2 surveying companies, then a first class GAFTA approved 3rd surveyor (to be mutually agreed upon) should act as arbitrator’…
‘All conditions not in conflict with the above as per GAFTA 49’.”
“GASC TENDER TERMS” (GTT) is a reference to a separate document, issued by the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), the Egyptian state wheat procurement body inviting tenders for the purchase of wheat by GASC and containing the terms applicable to any such purchase made by GASC pursuant to such tendering regime. The goods were purchased by buyers in order to fulfil their obligations under the sub-sale which they had concluded with GASC.
On 11 October, the buyers nominated the carrying vessel and on 17 October they informed the sellers that their superintending company would be Comibassal (C), which would issue the superintendent’s certificate. C had been appointed by GASC under the terms of the sub-sale. After the vessel had commenced loading, the GASC delegation requested the buyers to suspend loading, as C stated that it had detected high levels of Lolium seeds and other defects. On 3 November, loading was halted and an unknown quantity of cargo was discharged and replaced by sellers. After the loading had been
* Professor of Commercial Law, King’s College London.
1. [2015] EWHC 80 (Comm); [2015] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 413; [2015] 1 All ER (Comm) 985.
English Sale of Goods Law
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