Page 427 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

CONTEMPORARY CIVIL LAW
moments in time. The general limitation period for personal actions in article 1964 is counted from the day the seller or creditor has become or should have been aware of the non-performance or non-conformity.115 Yet, the limitation periods for non-conformity start to run on the moment the thing bought comes in the possession of the buyer or is delivered to him. In the event of the seller's bad faith limitation is again determined differently; the period does not start before the buyer discovers or could have discovered the defect.116 Furthermore, some remedies for non-conformity are made dependent on the buyer's notification of the non-conformity to the seller within 'a reasonable time'.117 This variety of limitation periods and concomitant moments on which they start to run is likely to become a future cause of confusion.
The committee's proposal furthermore distinguishes between a seller who in bad faith conceals the lack of conformity and one who does not. In the first case, the limitation starts to run not before the buyer discovers or could have discovered the non-conformity. Hence, the seller who knowingly sold a non-conforming thing is 'punished', as the buyer who suffered from this fraud is granted a longer period to bring a remedy than when he had dealt with a seller in good faith.
This distinction between sellers in good and bad faith is also carried through in the implementation of the demand in Directive 1999/44/EC that the buyer has to inform the seller within 'a reasonable' time of the non-conformity. The proposal applies this duty to inform to both consumer and non-consumer sales. If the buyer fails to act accordingly, he forfeits his claim for fulfilment of the contract (repair and replacement), but keeps the possibility to sue for price reduction and compensation for loss. Against a seller in bad faith, however, the buyer's neglect to inform the seller does not have consequences; the buyer keeps all the claims available under non-conformity.118
With regard to the buyer's duty to notify the seller within a reasonable period of time, the Spanish proposal compares favourably with the Code civil, BGB 2002 and NBW in terms of legal certainty. As observed above, the Dutch legislator made the duration of the remedy for non-conformity depend on whether the buyer had within 'a reasonable time' informed the seller of the non-conformity. The seller had to be granted a reasonable period to repair his breach of contract. If the buyer had not interrupted limitation during the seller's efforts to cure the breach, he had to bring a remedy for rescission and loss within two
115 Art. 1190 Proposal: En caso de incumplimiento podrá el acreedor... exigir el cumplimiento de la obligación, reducir el precio o resolver el contrato, y, en cualquiera de estos supuestos, podrá además exigir la indemnización de los daños y perjuicios producidos; the interpretation of article 1964 can be found in the report of the Comisión general de la codificación, p. 4.
116 Art. 1488 Proposal: ... pero si el vendedor ha ocultado la falta de conformidad, el plazo se computará a partir del día en que el comprador la haya descubierto o no haya podido ignorarla...
117 Art. 1489 Proposal: El comprador que no comunique la falta de conformidad de la cosa al vendedor en un plazo razonable desde que la hubiese conocido o hubiera debido conocerla, sólo tendrá derecho a reducir el precio o a exigir la indemnización de daños y perjuicios, excluido el lucro cesante; pero si el vendedor conociere o no hubiere podido ignorar la falta de conformidad, el comprador conservará todos los derechos que le corresponden; Ponce de León, Propuesta, p. 40.
118 Art. 1489 Proposal: ...excluido el lucro cessante; pero si el vendedor conociere o no hubiere podido ignorar la falta de conformidad, el comprador conservará todos los derechos que le corresponden.
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