Question

atima manufactures car parts and personally installs them for her next-door neighbors. Fatima doesn’t advertise her services, but she has been doing business with her neighbors, including Daquan, for the past 12 months. On March 1, Daquan sees Fatima and says to her, “Can you manufacture 10 sets of steering wheels for me and get them to me by March 14? I will pay you $5,000.” Fatima says, “Sure, I’ll get them to you for $6,000.” He says, “$5,500, like usual.” Fatima smiles, and they both go home. On March 2, Daquan mails Fatima a note, saying, “I will pay Fatima $5,500.” Fatima had planned to go on vacation between March 2 and March 12, but she cancels her plans, even though she knows that the next chance she will have to go on vacation will be next year and that she will have to pay several thousand more dollars. On March 12, Fatima delivers 10 wheels and tires to Daquan in 10 boxes, along with a 50 other boxes of other things that Daquan had bought from her. Unfortunately, Fatima did not mark the boxes, which she put in a big, messy pile in Daquan’s grandparents’ yard, so Daquan did not have a chance to go through the boxes to see what was in them until April. When Daquan finally found a box with a wheel, the wheel was not a steering wheel at all, and it fell apart the moment he touched it. Daquan was confused and angry, because now, he could not sell the cars that he had needed the steering wheels for. He said to Fatima, “Give me my money back.” Fatima said, “No, I gave you what you asked for.” Identify and analyze all legal concepts and, also, discuss likely outcomes

Answer 1

As we read the case study the first thing we analyze is that there is a information asymmetry between the supplier and the consumer. Supplier here is Fatima as she sells the car parts and the consumer is Daquan.

What were the errors in the case -

1. The agreement for the good is not written down on paper . There are no any signatures of both the parties.

2. There is no description of good which needs to be delivered and the deadline along with the compensation

3. If we consider this trade then it can be classified as Over the Counter Trade where the deal is oral and not documented

4. Due to the information asymmetry the supplier could have assumed that order was for the car wheels as consumer asked for 10 sets and not 10 units.

5. Other issue is from the side of seller as there was no demarcation on the goods.

6. Issue from the side of the consumer is that he did not check the goods while it was delivered.

Solution- as this is an informal trade no Enquiry can be made because of lack of documentation. There should also be imposed restriction on the seller because there was no advertisement . Thus, there can be certain penalty on seller for not providing proper information and bill as well. Delivery was improper along with extra boxes which may not have been required at that time.