Case number: 215
Article number: sales convention / 8 (3); 55
Thessaurs issue:
Country of decision: Switzerland
Year of decision: 1997
Type of decision: Judicial decision

Case 215: CISG 8 (3); 55
Switzerland: Bezirksgericht St. Gallen, 3PZ97/18
3 July 1997
Original in German
Unpublished
Abstract published in German in 1 Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Internationales und Europäisches Recht 84 [1998]
A Dutch seller (plaintiff) and a Swiss buyer (defendant) entered into an agreement for goods to be manufactured by the buyer with the raw material delivered by the seller. After the buyer had used 10 percent of the raw material, the cooperation between the buyer and the seller was terminated and the remaining goods returned to the seller. The seller sued the buyer for the purchase price of the whole shipment.

The court held that the buyer had to pay the price for all the material delivered and not only for the 10 percent used. The court relied, in the first place, on the buyer's subsequent conduct

(article 8 (3) CISG). The buyer had asked the seller to send the invoice without any reservations although it already knew that the whole material would not be used. The purchase price had not been fixed by the parties and was determined by the court in application of article 55 CISG. The interest rate was fixed based on the law applicable pursuant to the forum's rules of private international law, which led to Dutch law. However, the court mentioned the possibility of determining the rate of interest in application of the law at the debtor's place of business, pointing out that it was the debtor who could profit from the fact that the purchase price had not been paid.