The unpaid seller and suits for breach (ss. 31-61, 64): delivery in outline, lien, stoppage in transit, resale, the seller's and the buyer's suits, and auction sales revisited

LUG-103 Law of Contract including Specific Relief Act & Sale of Goods Act, Unit V: Suits for breach of the contract. · LLB · 60 min

When the buyer does not pay, the Act gives the seller rights against the goods themselves - lien, stoppage in transit and resale (ss. 45-54) - and rights against the buyer personally - the suit for the price and damages for non-acceptance (ss. 55-56, 60-61); the buyer, in turn, has damages for non-delivery, specific performance and the remedy for breach of warranty (ss. 57-59). This lecture explains who is an unpaid seller, each right with its conditions and the cases (Great Indian Peninsula Railway v. Hanmandas, Lyons v. Hoffnung, Booth Steamship, Kemp v. Falk), the delivery rules of ss. 31-44 in outline, and returns to sales by auction (s. 64) with the 2025-26 question. The unpaid seller's lien and the loss of it was a full 7-mark question in 2022-23.

Objectives

State the duties of seller and buyer and the rules of delivery in ss. 31-44 in outline
Define the unpaid seller (s. 45) and list his rights against the goods and against the buyer (s. 46)
Explain the right of lien (ss. 47-49) - when it arises, how it is exercised and when it is lost - and the right of stoppage in transit (ss. 50-52) with the duration of transit and the effect of sub-sale (s. 53) and resale (s. 54)
Distinguish lien from stoppage in transit and apply the leading cases to a problem
Explain the suits for breach in ss. 55-61 and the rules on auction sales in s. 64

Slides

Performance of the contract: delivery rules in outline (ss. 31-44)
Who is an unpaid seller (s. 45) and what rights he has (s. 46)
The unpaid seller's lien: ss. 47, 48 and 49, and GIP Railway v. Hanmandas
Stoppage in transit: ss. 50, 51 and 52 with Lyons v. Hoffnung and Booth Steamship
Lien v stoppage in transit: the comparison table
Sub-sale or pledge by the buyer (s. 53) and the right of resale (s. 54): Kemp v. Falk
Rights against the buyer personally: suit for price (s. 55), damages for non-acceptance (s. 56), repudiation (s. 60), interest (s. 61)
The buyer's remedies: damages for non-delivery (s. 57), specific performance (s. 58), breach of warranty (s. 59), and the rights to examine and reject
Auction sales revisited: s. 64, the unpaid seller's resale by auction, and the 2025-26 question
How the examiner asks it

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