Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A physical representation of goods offered by a seller that becomes part of the basis of the bargain and thereby creates an express warranty that the goods delivered will conform to it.
Serena Soto visited Stonehaven Properties to purchase fire-resistant filing cabinets for her records center. Stonehaven supplied a demonstration cabinet that passed a heat test Serena arranged. Relying on that performance, she ordered five hundred units. The delivered cabinets failed independent fire-resistance testing, so the sample established an express warranty that the shipment did not meet.
Sophia Singh inspected a sample generator at Southland Foods before buying two units for backup power. Southland offered a full-load test that would have revealed overheating under sustained operation, but Sophia declined due to time constraints. After installation the generators shut down during an outage at eighty percent load. The prior opportunity to examine the sample eliminated any implied warranty for that defect.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
No. The statute provides that formal words such as warranty or guarantee are unnecessary. A sample or model that becomes part of the basis of the bargain creates the warranty regardless of any specific language or subjective intent by the seller.
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Examination of the sample or model as fully as the buyer desires excludes any implied warranty for defects that the examination ought to have revealed. The buyer who declines a further test offered by the seller loses protection for defects that test would have shown.
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The warranty requires conformity only in the characteristics that formed part of the basis of the bargain. Nonconformity in those material respects constitutes a breach even if other aspects of the goods differ.
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