Highlights
* The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has conducted a comprehensive review of the legislative and judicial history of The Agricultural Implements Act (Saskatchewan), including principles which should be applied in interpreting the Act. The decision focuses on two issues: (a) whether an alleged breach of the statutory warranty that new farm equipment must "perform well the work for which it was intended" should be assessed on a subjective or objective standard, and (b) the provisions of the Act which give farmers the right to declare void any contract which contains "illegal" provisions that contravene the Act. The Court upheld a trial decision which concluded that an objective standard should be applied in concluding whether this statutory warranty had been breached, and that farmers who alleged that a dealer and manufacturer of a $328,000.00 self-propelled high clearance sprayer breached the warranty because the sprayer was underpowered, had failed to discharge the burden of proving the breach. The Court relied, in part, on the fact that both the dealer and the farmer had neglected to fill in a blank in the contract relating to the power of the sprayer. The Court also upheld the trial Judge's decision that the farmers did not have the right to declare the purchase as void, even though parts of the contract contained illegal provisions, because the farmers were estopped in doing so because they had already elected to rely on the contract by giving notice to reject the sprayer pursuant to the Act. (Coward v Kramer Ltd., CALN/2018-021, [2018] S.J. No. 316, Saskatchewan Court of Appeal)
Download >> Agricultural Law Netletter - August 21, 2018.
Originally published by LexisNexis
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