Borealis AB v Geogas Trading SA - QBD (Comm Ct)(Gross LJ) - 9 November 2010

Sale of goods - Novus actus interveniens - Sale of butane to be used as feedstock in buyer's olefin plant - Butane contaminated with fluorides producing harmful acids - Acids causing physical damage to buyer's plant and consequential losses - Breach of implied term that butane would be of satisfactory quality - Seller contending that loss and damage would have been avoided had buyer responded appropriately to acid alarm at plant - Whether buyer acted unreasonably in failing to take steps in response to acid alarm - Whether chain of causation broken

By a contract made on 22 August 2003 the defendant (“Geogas”) agreed to sell to the claimant (“Borealis”) 5,200 mt of butane as a feedstock for Borealis’s integrated olefin plant situated at Stenungsund, Sweden. The price was US$259.50 per mt.