Warranty or Condition in UK Law

If the description is a familiar one it may be that in practice only one quality of goods answers that description —then that quality and only that quality is merchantable quality. Or it may be that various qualities of goods are commonly sold under that description—then it is not disputed that the lowest quality commonly so sold is what is meant by merchantable quality: it is commercially saleable under that description.

Where a loss is caused by two perils operating simultaneously at the time of loss and one is wholly excluded because the policy is warranted free of it, the question is whether it can be denied that the loss was so caused, for if not the warranty operates. They were both immediate and concurrent causes, and if either was within the policy, the assured recovered.

Mr Cockerton had a senior position in a well — known firm and is good at his job. He is liked and respected by those at Aviva with whom he dealt. In cross -examination he was at first confident, clear and convincing. I have no reason to doubt his evidence about more general matters. When the questions turned to the letters and the fax Mr Cockerton seemed a different man.

But ultimately the test is whether the buyer could fairly and reasonably refuse to accept the physical goods proffered to him on the ground that their failure to correspond with that part of what was said about them in the contract makes them goods of a different kind from those he had agreed to buy.

That decision is entirely consistent both with the nature of a deposit and with the general approach of the law to repudiation and renunciation of contracts. Since the payment of a deposit at the executory stage of the contract is an earnest (or guarantee) of further performance, it is no surprise that a failure to pay the deposit on time is taken to demonstrate that the buyer is unwilling to perform the contract as a whole.