Question

Angela bought a new flat in February 2020. On 1 March 2020, she went shopping in a departure store near her office for buying some furniture for her new home. She was attracted by a 3-seater sofa in black on display. Angela enquired if she could get the same model of sofa in brown so that the color scheme of her living room would be matched. Billy, the salesman of the department store passed the color list to Angela and said she could choose her favorite color from the color list. The department store would then tailor-make the sofa for her. After choosing the color (code: 001) from the color list, Angela entered into an agreement with Billy for buying the sofa at HK$8,000 (Agreement 1). Before leaving the department store, Angela found a sofa slipcover in another section of the department store. She bought it at $500 for covering her new sofa (Agreement 2). After the delivery of the 3-seater sofa to Angela’s home, she found that the color was slightly deviated from the one she ordered but still matched the color scheme of her living room. She also observed that there were scratches on the seating area of sofa. If the sofa slipcover was put on the sofa, the scratches were unnoticeable. After dinner, Angela put the newly purchased sofa slipcover onto the sofa and sat on it when watching television. At mid-night, she felt very itchy, developed rashes, and suffered high fever. She was immediately admitted into the hospital. Medical expense of $5,800 was incurred to cure her skin disease. Later, she discovered that the sofa slipcover was made of satin, a kind of synthetic material which caused her skin problem. This type of synthetic material would cause allergy to people with sensitive skin, but not to people with normal skin. Unknown to Angela, she has had sensitive skin for a long time but she was not aware of it because she used to wear cottonmade clothing. On the other hand, after checking with Billy, the slight difference in the color of the sofa was due to the manufacturer’s mistake in reading the color code “001” as “002”, not the fault of the department store. After knowing that, Angela was very disappointed and told Billy that she wanted to reject the two purchased items (sofa and sofa slipcover), get refund and claim the medical expenses incurred.

Required: Referring to the context of Sales of Goods Ordinance (Cap 26) (“SOGO”),

advise Angela of her rights in rejecting the two purchased items (sofa and sofa slipcover), getting refund and claiming the medical expense. (500words)

Part (b) Legal Rules Application 3-seater sofa & conclusion Sofa slipcover & conclusion

in this format

Answer 1

Angela brought a three-seater sofa and a sofa slipcover from a nearby department tall store to her office. But the things not seemed to be up to the mark and she has to be hospitalized due to skin problems. So she wants to return the products and want a refund of her full payment as well as the hospitalization expenses.

Legal Rules- This case will be considered under  Sales of Goods Ordinance (Cap 26) ("SOGO")

Application- This will be considered under SOGO as the goods have been sold for private consumption and for a price, which is obtained from the buyer to the seller. In this case, there are two products. One product ie. Three seater sofa is not according to the specification told by the buyer. According to one of the sections of SOGO, when buyer specifically told the seller about the requirements and the seller do not meet the requirement, the buyer has every right to return the goods. In this case, Angela has given the order for (code: 001) color and the manufacturer by mistake has done the color to (code:002). So, here the specification of the buyer does not meet the products delivered. She also noticed that there are scratches on the seat. According to SOGO, the things delivered to the buyer should be free from any damages at the time of delivery. The second product purchased is sofa cover which is made up of satin and can cause allergy to the highly sensitive skin but not the normal skin. In this case, the buyer herself was not aware of her skin sensitivity. So, she cannot claim damage regarding this from the seller.

3Seater Sofa & Conclusion- In this case, Angela has every right to return the product and obtain the full refund of the money she had given the seller as the selling price since firstly they were not according to the specifications and secondly, they were damaged. She can sue the seller for the bad quality scratched product and the seller should have checked the color of the item before delivering to her.ie. whether the manufacturer has made the order as specified.

Sofa slipcover and Conclusion- In this case, she cannot claim any damage, since the material is made up of satin which can create skin problems for highly sensitive skin and not for normal skin. The seller has sold the product with the assumption of she had normal skin and she was not aware of her skin sensitivity till her hospitalization. so, she cannot claim any medical charges from the seller regarding her skin rash and cannot return the product. It is not the fault of the seller that she had such high sensitive skin and so she cannot recover damages.