Sales and Leases - A Problem-based Approach, 2016a

13.2.4. After acceptance, the burden is on the buyer to establish any breach with respect
to the goods accepted.
13.3. Revocation of Acceptance. At this point, you are well aware that if a buyer accepts goods,
the buyer may no longer reject the goods for any non-conformity. After acceptance, is the buyer
stuck with a product that turns out to be defective? That is, although the buyer still has the right
to other remedies, can the buyer rescind the contract and be excused from paying the purchase
price for the goods? Section 2-608 provides limited circumstances where a buyer may revoke
acceptance, return the goods, and be relieved from his obligation to pay. Turn to UCC § 2-608.
13.3.1. In order to revoke acceptance, the non-conformity must substantially impair the
value of the good to the buyer “to him”
AND EITHER
OR
a. The buyer accepted aware of the non-conformity, but reasonably assuming that
it would be cured (and it hasn’t been seasonably cured);
b. The buyer had not discovered the non-conformity at the time of acceptance,
either because (i) the non-conformity was difficult to discover, or (ii) her
acceptance was reasonably induced by seller’s assurances (which, for example,
may have caused her not to inspect).
Many of the cases explore whether the language “to him” creates a subjective test of nonconformity,
which might allow the buyer to claim that a trivial defect was important to
the particular buyer. For example, in Harper v. Mitchell, 1985 WL 4040 (Tenn. App.), the
court stated: “While it is true that [§ 2-608] creates a subjective test in the sense that the
requirements of a particular buyer must be examined and deferred to, the evidence with
regard to the substantial impairment to a particular buyer must be measured in objective
terms…. Thus, the ‘substantial impairment’ requirement should be construed to exclude
attempted revocations based upon trivial defects or defects that can be easily repaired.”
Problem 13-3. Helen, a rancher, enters into an agreement for the purchase of a new pick-up. The
contract specifically provides that the pick-up will come with a full-sized spare tire, because
Helen lives 30 miles out of town on a gravel road, and she doesn’t trust that a puny spare tire
would hold up on such roads. When the pick-up arrives, Helen forgets to check on the spare tire.
A month later, while crawling under the pick-up to get a puppy that has scrambled under it, she
looks up and notices that the spare tire (attached to the undercarriage) is one of those puny things.
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