Remedies of the Buyer under the Sale of Goods Act, 1930: Rejection, Damages for Non-Delivery, Specific Performance, Breach of Warranty, Recovery of the Price, Interest and Special Damages

The buyer's remedies fall into two groups, and it is worth keeping them apart. Some are exercised against the goods: refusing them, rejecting the wrong quantity, insisting on a chance to examine before he is taken to have accepted. Others are claims against the seller: damages for non-delivery, specific performance, damages for breach of warranty, and recovery of the price with interest. Which of them is open depends on two questions that recur throughout the Act: was the term broken a condition or a warranty, and has the buyer accepted the goods?

The two groups of remedy, and the questions that decide which are available

1. Remedies Against the Goods

Rejection for breach of a condition. Breach of the implied conditions as to title (s. 14(a)), description (s. 15), quality and fitness (s. 16) or sample (s. 17), or of an express condition, allows the buyer to reject and treat the contract as repudiated.
Rejection for wrong quantity, s. 37. Short, excess or mixed delivery each gives the buyer a choice of accepting what conforms or rejecting the whole.
The right to examine, s. 41. He is not deemed to have accepted goods he has not previously examined until he has had a reasonable opportunity to examine them.
No duty to return, s. 43. A buyer who rightly rejects need only intimate his refusal; the seller must collect the goods.
The limit, s. 13(2). Once he has accepted the goods under a contract that is not severable, rejection is no longer possible and the breach can be treated only as a breach of warranty.

2. Claims Against the Seller

Damages for non-delivery, s. 57, measured on Section 73 principles, ordinarily by the difference between the market price at the date of breach and the contract price.
Specific performance, s. 58, for specific or ascertained goods, subject to the Specific Relief Act, and without giving the seller the option of paying damages instead.
Breach of warranty, s. 59: the buyer may set the breach up in diminution or extinction of the price, or sue for damages, and may still sue for further damage under s. 59(2).
Recovery of the price where the consideration has wholly failed, preserved by s. 61(1), as where the seller had no title.
Interest, s. 61(2)(b), on a refund of the price, running from the date the buyer paid.
Special damages within the second limb of s. 73, where the seller knew of the special circumstances.

📖 Hammond & Co. v. Bussey, (1887) 20 QBD 79 (CA)

Facts: Coal was sold to a merchant to the seller's knowledge for resale as steamship coal. It proved unsuitable, and the sub-buyers sued the merchant, who defended the claim reasonably and lost. He then sought from his own seller not only the difference in value of the coal but also the costs he had incurred in defending the sub-buyer's action.

Held: The costs were recoverable. Because the seller knew the coal was bought for resale, litigation with a sub-buyer was a natural and probable consequence of supplying unsuitable coal, and the costs reasonably incurred in defending that claim were within the contemplation of the parties.

Ratio: Where the seller knows the goods are for resale, the buyer's liability to a sub-buyer, and the reasonable costs of resisting it, may be recovered as damages.

3. Which Remedy, and When

The complaint	The remedy
The seller has not delivered	Damages, s. 57; specific performance, s. 58, for specific or ascertained goods
The goods do not answer the description or are unfit	Reject before acceptance; after acceptance, damages under s. 59
The seller had no title	Reject and recover the whole price for total failure of consideration
The quantity is wrong	The options in s. 37
A warranty is broken	Reduce the price or sue for damages, s. 59
Money has been paid for nothing	Recover it with interest, s. 61

4. The Position Stated Shortly

The buyer's remedies divide into rights against the goods and claims against the seller.
Breach of a condition allows rejection, until acceptance under Section 13(2).
Section 41 preserves the right to examine before acceptance, and Section 43 spares him the burden of returning rejected goods.
Section 57 gives damages for non-delivery, and Section 58 specific performance for specific or ascertained goods.
Section 59 gives price reduction or damages for breach of warranty.
Section 61 preserves recovery of the price on a failure of consideration, with interest and special damages.
Hammond v. Bussey: costs of defending a sub-buyer's claim were recoverable where resale was known.