Warranty

“ They are part of the stevedore's 'warranty of workmanlike service that is comparable to a manufacturer's warranty of the soundness of its manufactured product.' Id., 350 U.S. at pages 133-134, 76 S.Ct. ”

“ If it be true that the failure of a vendee to exact a warranty when he takes a written contract precludes him from showing a warranty be parol, a multo fortiori when his written contract contains a warranty on the identical question, and one in its terms inconsistent with the one claimed. ”

“ You will find the expressman will not let you. He will say, "No, you must pay for the sealed package," and until you do so, you will have no right to the possession of the goods. If the goods are not all right you have redress by suing the seller, but you must pay your money first.
WARRANTIES.—Another and most important right which the buyer has is the enforcement of warranties. Warranties of a chattel may be either express or implied. An express warranty is a promise or an obligation imposed by the law because of a representation which the seller has made in regard to the goods. ”

“ Another remedy, which is universally allowed, is to sue for whatever damage the breach of warranty may have caused, and one or two cases will show how serious these damages may be. A seller sells a pair of sheep to a buyer with a warranty, express or implied, of their soundness. They have an infectious disease, and when put with a large flock of the buyer's sheep they infect the whole flock, and the damage is the loss of the whole flock. ”

“ Shall he be told that he must rely solely on the insolvent vendor's warranty?
If the purchaser has dealt with his eyes open, and with a knowledge of the facts,-has obtained and yet peaceably enjoys the possession,-he may have no right to anticipate his legal remedy upon the warranty to which he has fairly trusted. But it would be unjust to throw a party upon a warranty in a case where, from the fraud of the other party, he did not think he should ever have need to rest upon it. To hold him bound in such a case would be to make, not to enforce, a contract. ”

“ The authorities to which we have referred, although differing in the form of stating the qualifications and limitations of the general rule, yet indicate with reasonable certainty the substantial grounds upon which the doctrine of implied warranty has been made to rest. ”

“ He may refuse to receive the article at all. 2. He may receive it, and bring a cross action for the breach of the warranty. 3. He may, without bringing a cross action, use the breach of warranty in reduction of damages in an action brought by the vendor for the price.' The annotator proceeds to say, 'that it was once thought, and, indeed, laid down by Lord Eldon, in Curtis v. Hanney, 3 Esp., 83, that he might, on discovering the breach of warranty, rescind the contract, return the chattel, and, if he had paid the price, recover it back. ”

“ Does such a warranty bind other persons than the warrantor, in other words are his heirs and persons to whom he may devise his lands also indefinitely bound by his warranty? The statutes in some states fix his liability. Where none exist the law limits the liability of parties to the amount of assets or property they have received from the warrantor; if they have received nothing they are not liable for anything.
A covenant to protect the buyer from encumbrances, claims, etc., does not always relieve him from the expense of a lawsuit. ”

“ Another rule on which there are vast stores of forgotten learning will show how exactly the fiction fell in with the earlier law. Only those who were privy in estate with the person to whom the warranty was originally given, could vouch the original warrantor. Looking back to the early [376] procedure, it will be seen that of course only those in the same chain of title could even mediately get the benefit of a former owner's warranty. The ground on which a man was bound to warrant was that he had conveyed the property to the person who summoned him. ”

“ The term “warranty” has a peculiar and technical meaning in the law of sale. It denotes a stipulation which the law regards as collateral to the main purpose of the contract. A breach, Warranty. therefore, does not entitle the buyer to reject the goods, but only to claim damages. Suppose that a man buys a particular horse, which is warranted quiet to ride and drive. If the horse turns out to be vicious, the buyer’s only remedy is to claim damages, unless he has expressly reserved a right to return it. ”

“ A written warranty shall clearly and conspicuously designate such warranty as:
1) "Full warranty" if the written warranty meets the minimum requirements set forth in paragraph (d) ; or
2) "Limited warranty" if the written warranty does not meet such minimum requirements.
d) Minimum standards for warranties. – For the warrantor of a consumer product to meet the minimum standards for warranty, he shall:
1) remedy such consumer product within a reasonable time and without charge in case of a defect, malfunction or failure to conform to such written warranty ”

“ In support of the claim, on the ground of warranty, it is said, this was a sale by sample, and that all such sales carry with them a guaranty, that the article, in bulk, is of the same quality, in all respects, as the sample exhibited. If the rules of law which govern sales by sample, are at all applicable to this case, it becomes necessary to ascertain by whom the warranty is made. In private transactions, no difficulty on this head can arise. A merchant, who employs a broker to sell his goods, knows, or is presumed to know, the state and condition of the article he offers for sale ”

“ A general contract to supply a pure article is not a sufficient warranty unless with every delivery there is something to identify the delivery as part of the contract. An invoice containing merely a description of an article as ``lard'' or ``pepper'' is not a warranty; but if there be added the words ``guaranteed pure'' it is a sufficient warranty. A label upon an article is not in itself a warranty, but a label bearing the words ``pure'' or ``unadulterated,'' coupled with an invoice which could be identified with the label, together were held to form an effective warranty. ”

“ In many cases, doubtless, they know more about the quality and condition of the things they buy than the inexperienced salesmen who are behind the counters, so they need no protection from the law; when they do need it a warranty may serve [261] a good purpose. In articles concerning which the seller does possess a superior knowledge, precious stones, drugs, medicines, and the like, the modern law has raised an implied warranty for the buyer's protection. In this class of cases the buyer and seller do not deal on equal terms. The vendor is professedly an expert. ”

“ Hidden defects are those which could not be discovered by simple inspection. (Civ. Code, art. 2,497.) In case the seller desires to rescind the contract by reason of the breach of such a warranty, he may do so by an action of redhibition. ”

“ I. Commencing with the 1965 vehicles, introduced by Ford in the fall of 1964, the manufacturer has made its warranty directly to the retail purchaser as well as to the dealer. When a purchaser of a Ford car finds a defect which he claims to be within the warranty, he returns the car to the dealer who repairs it and submits a Warranty Refund Claim to Ford. The company reimburses the dealer for replacement parts at cost plus a profit and for labor in an amount determined by multiplying the installation time specified in a Ford schedule by the dealer's then approved labor rate. ”

“ At common law, as is familiar to all of us, when an action is brought to recover real estate which a defendant holds by purchase from another, accompanied with a covenant of warranty, the defendant may, at his option, elect either to give notice of the pending action to his vendor and warrantor, or to await the result of the suit, and, if judgment passes against him, sue upon his covenant of warranty. ”

“ In case of a breach of warranty, the person to whom the warranty has been given may sue without a return of the goods. He is not obliged to rescind the sale. Thus the law is stated by Kent, 4 Com. 480. In Man. ”

“ The warranty of seaworthiness underlies all contracts between the vessel and the shipper. It is an implied warranty on the part of the owner that the vessel is seaworthy, and sufficient for the use to which she is to be devoted. This warranty may be modified between the parties as they see fit by express agreement or necessary implication; a man may hire an unseaworthy boat and agree to put her in good condition; a charterer who examines and accepts a ship whose condition is defective cannot complain of an injury to the cargo caused by such defects. ”

“ If a horse is warranted "perfectly sound, without blemish, free from vice, steady to ride, and quiet in harness," it is a full and general warranty speaking for itself; leaving very little for the intentional {73} purchaser to do (in respect to inspection) if he has previously tried and approved the paces of the horse. But where a warranty seemingly guarded, or cautiously partial, is offered, a proper degree of circumspection will be necessary to prevent a chance of early repentance; a prevention of litigation will prove less expensive than the cure of a lawsuit. ”

“ The action sounding in tort, the plaintiff, in order to charge the defendant, must show, in addition to his undertaking, some act by him, that is, a sale; but the owner was the seller, and not the friend or servant, in the cases supposed. A contract, again, is, properly, a promise to act or forbear in the future. But the action under discussion must be, as Choke, J., said, in the same case, upon a warranty of a thing present, and not of a thing to come. A vendor who gives a false warranty may be charged to-day, of course, in contract ”

“ If, however, any property is attached, and he who is in possession of it has no such witnesses, no vouching to warranty shall be allowed, but the property shall be given up to its rightful owner and also the supplementary payment, and the fine to the party who is entitled thereto. And if he has witnesses in accordance with what we have declared above, vouching to warranty shall take place three times. On the fourth occasion he shall prove his claim to it or give it back to its rightful owner. No one shall claim ownership where fraud is involved. ”

“ Because of the terms of the rider, a determination of the hazard involved was essential to maintaining the defense under the prohibited articles warranty as well as that under the increase of hazard warranty. ”

“ If the buyer relied, and under the circumstances had reason to rely, on the judgment of the seller, who was the manufacturer or maker of the article, the law implies a warranty that it is reasonably fit for the use for which it was designed, the seller at the time being informed of the purpose to devote it to that use. ”

“ This provision, for example, bars an automobile manufacturer from voiding a warranty if a consumer has scheduled maintenance performed by someone other than the dealer, prohibits a printer manufacturer from conditioning its warranty on the purchaser’s use of the manufacturer’s branded ink, and forbids a smartphone manufacturer from voiding a warranty when a consumer has a new battery installed at a kiosk at the mall. ”

“ And the description of the stevedore's obligation as one of performance with reasonable safety is not a reference to the reasonable man test pertaining to negligence, but a delineation of the scope of the stevedore's implied contractual duties. The implied warranty to supply reasonably safe equipment may be satisfied with less than absolutely perfect equipment ”

“ First. The contract between the parties was in writing, and contained an express warranty as to the quality. It says: 'These goods [are] to be exactly the same quality as we make for the De Witt Wire Cloth Company, of New York, and as per sample bbls. delivered.' Now, there is good authority for the proposition that if the contract of sale is in writing, and contains no warranty, parol evidence is not admissible to add a warranty. ”

“ To illustrate this by an example, If lands are given to A. and the heirs male of his body, and A. aliens with warranty, this is lineal warranty, and shall not bind the son; but if B. the brother of A. who has nothing to say to the entail, joins in the alienation with warranty, or releases to the alienee with warranty, or disseizes A, and then aliens with warranty, and dies without issue, so that A’s son is his heir, this warranty is collateral to the entail, and without assets should bind the son of A, as at common law. ”

“ The retailer, even though not equipped to test a product, is under an absolute liability to his customer, for the implied warranties of fitness for proposed use and merchantable quality include a warranty of safety of the product. ”

“ In passing, however, it is worthy of note that, while the civil law enforces, in the contract of sale, generally, the broadest obligation of warranty, it has so narrowed it, when dealing with credits and incorporeal rights, as to confine it to the title of the seller and to the existence of the credit sold ”

“ The principal distinction between a warranty in connection with sale of personal property, and in connection with contracts of insurance, is that in the former case, breach of warranty usually does not discharge the contract, but simply gives rise to an action for damages, while in case of contracts of insurance, breach of warranty discharges the contract itself. Life insurance companies generally require formal written application by which the applicant for insurance is required to answer questions. ”