Certificate final clauses - The Mercini Lady

KG Bominflot Bunkergesellschaft fur Mineraloele mbH & Co KG v Petroplus Marketing AG (‘The Mercini Lady’) [2011] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 442

Kashimana Tsumba, BL (Nigeria), LLM (Southampton)

Background

The rule in shipment sales is that risk passes on and as from shipment subject to certain exceptions. This rule is a departure from the position in general consumer contracts where property and risk pass on at the time of delivery. In these contracts the buyer can usually reject delivered goods based on the warranty if goods fail to comply with their description or are damaged. However, in shipment, sales certificate final clauses are clauses whereby the seller can change a physical duty to ship goods of the contract description into a purely documentary one. These clauses get their validity from s55 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which states that: