CULINDO LIVESTOCK (1994) PTE LTD V ANANDA UK (CHINA) LTD

[2014] SGHC 178, Singapore High Court, Tay Yong Kwang J, 10 September 2014

Contract - Sale of Goods - Contractual terms - Description of goods - Fitness for intended purpose - Sale by sample - Implication of term and the parol evidence rule - [Singapore] Sale of Goods Act (Cap 393, 1999 Rev Ed) sections 13(1), 14(1), 14(2)

The dispute concerned the sale by the defendant of CSS, an antibiotic for livestock, to the plaintiff, a livestock wholesaler. The defendant pharmaceuticals trader was allegedly in breach of 11 such sale contracts entered into between 2009 and 2011. Some of the CSS delivered was tested and found to be of insufficient purity and some was allegedly found to be a different substance altogether, referred to as CFX and used in humans rather than livestock. The issues were: (a) whether the contract for the sale of CSS from Ananda to Culindo was a sale by description or a sale by sample or both; (b) in the event that the sale was by description, whether there was breach of the condition implied under section 13(1) of the Sale of Goods Act (SGA) that the goods would correspond with the description; (c) whether there was a breach of the condition implied under section 14(2) of the SGA that the goods supplied would be of satisfactory quality; (d) whether it was an express or implied term of the contract that the source of CSS would be Chemtec (the manufacturer); (e) whether it was an implied term of the contract that the Chemtec standard would be used to test the suitability and quality of CSS supplied by Ananda; and (f) what would be an appropriate remedy on the facts of the present case if there was a breach of the sales contract.