Sale by Sample and Sale by Description Compared: The Standard Each Sets, What the Buyer Relies On, Sales That Are Both, and the Remedies for Breach

Sections 15 and 17 each imply a condition that the goods delivered will match a standard. Under Section 15 the standard is words: the description by which the goods were sold. Under Section 17 the standard is a physical specimen: the sample the buyer saw. The two often apply together, particularly in commodity trades where goods are both described by grade and shown by sample, and Section 15 then insists that both standards be met. Understanding how they differ matters because they protect against different risks and carry different additional conditions.

Four points of difference, and the rule where a sale is by both sample and description

1. The Standard Each Sets

Description identifies what the goods are: their kind, variety, grade, origin, model or specification. The buyer relies on the words, often without having seen the goods at all.
Sample shows what the goods are like: their quality, as far as it can be perceived from a specimen. The buyer relies on what he can see and test in the sample.
Description is about identity; sample is about quality. Goods may match a sample in quality and yet not be the goods described, or answer the description and yet be of a lower quality than the sample.

2. The Additional Conditions

Section 15 implies only one condition: correspondence with the description. Quality is governed separately by Section 16. Section 17, by contrast, implies three conditions in a sale by sample: correspondence in quality, a reasonable opportunity to compare, and freedom from unmerchantable defects not apparent on reasonable examination of the sample. A sale by sample therefore carries its own built-in protection against latent defects, while a sale by description relies on Section 16(2) for that.

3. Sales That Are Both

Section 15, Sale of Goods Act, 1930, last limb

If the sale is by sample as well as by description, it is not sufficient that the bulk of the goods corresponds with the sample if the goods do not also correspond with the description.

📖 Nichol v. Godts, (1854) 10 Exch 191

Facts: Oil was sold as foreign refined rape oil, warranted only equal to sample. The oil delivered matched the sample, but both were in fact a mixture of rape oil and hemp oil, and so were not foreign refined rape oil at all.

Held: The seller was liable. The contract was to supply foreign refined rape oil, and the reference to the sample went only to its quality within that description. Correspondence with the sample could not excuse the delivery of goods of a different kind from those described.

Ratio: Where goods are sold by sample and by description, they must answer the description as well as match the sample. The rule is stated in the last limb of Section 15.

4. The Remedies

Both are conditions. Breach of either entitles the buyer to reject the goods and treat the contract as repudiated, and to claim damages.
Section 13 applies to both. A buyer who accepts the goods under a non-severable contract is confined to damages, treating the breach as a breach of warranty.
Acceptance and examination. Under Section 41, a buyer who has not examined the goods is not deemed to accept them until he has had a reasonable opportunity to do so. In a sale by sample this is reinforced by the condition in Section 17(2)(b).
Exclusion under Section 62 is possible for both, subject to the controls on unfair terms in consumer contracts.

5. The Position Stated Shortly

Section 15 sets words as the standard; Section 17 sets a physical specimen.
Description goes to identity; sample goes to quality.
Section 17 carries its own conditions as to comparison and latent defects; Section 15 relies on Section 16 for quality.
Where a sale is by sample and description, the goods must satisfy both.
Nichol v. Godts: oil matching the sample but not of the described kind was a breach.
Both are conditions, and Section 13 applies to both after acceptance.