Haakjöringsköd case
The Haakjöringsköd case [ ˈhɔːçɛʀiŋsˌçœt ] is a judgment of the German Imperial Court of June 8, 1920 in the field of private law (file number II 549/19, reference: RGZ 99, 147-149 ). The question to be clarified was whether the buyer of a certain batch of goods is entitled to conversion if the goods specified in the purchase contract differ from the goods delivered according to the mutual will of the parties.
The case is a prime example of the principle of falsa demonstratio non nocet and the subjective concept of error in the law of the warranty for defects .
facts
The plaintiff purchased on November 18, 1916 at the defendant by steamer "Jessica" 214 barrels Haakjöringsköd from Norway at a price of 4.30 marks per kilogram. Both parties assumed that Haakjöringsköd was whale meat . In fact, in Norwegian the word “Haakjöringsköd” (actually: haakjærringkjøt , according to today's spelling: håkjerringkjøtt , in Nynorsk also håkjerringkjøt ) but shark meat : Håkjerring is the Greenland shark . At the end of November 1916, the buyer paid the seller the full purchase price.
When the steamer arrived in the port of Hamburg , it turned out that the barrels ordered contained shark meat. In contrast to whale meat, there were import restrictions for shark meat as a result of the First World War , so that the state central purchasing company mbH confiscated the cargo and paid the buyer a takeover price . However, this price was considerably below the purchase price already paid; the difference was 47,515.90 marks.
The Hamburg Regional Court (Chamber for Commercial Matters) upheld the buyer's action against the seller for payment of 47,515.90 marks. The seller's appeal to the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg was rejected. The seller was also unsuccessful at the Imperial Court .
meaning
The case is significant because the Reichsgericht found that a contract on whale meat had come about between the buyer and the seller, even though both had used the term Haakjöringsköd when the contract was concluded. The case is thus a prime example of the principle of falsa demonstratio non nocet (“wrong designation does no harm”).
The decisive factor for this result is § 133 BGB . According to this, when interpreting a declaration of will, “the real will must be explored and not clinging to the literal sense of the expression”. Subjectively, the parties wanted something different from what they objectively declared, and were thus wrong about the content of their declarations. In this constellation, there was no reason for the parties to cling to the wrong name, since they wanted the same thing.
The case also concerns other issues, which are now considered to have been resolved or are no longer relevant due to the law in force today: The parties had concluded a contract for whale meat, but the seller had delivered shark meat. The main questions for the Reichsgericht were the definition of error in § 459 BGB (old version) and the possibility of contesting the contract in accordance with § 119 (2) BGB.
Like the Trier wine auction , Haakjöringsköd is one of the classic cases that law students encounter in their first semester .
literature
- Albrecht Cordes : The Haakjöringsköd case. Jura 1991, 352-357.
- Michael Martinek : Haakjöringsköd in the exam. JuS 1997, 136-142.
- Dieter Medicus , Jens Petersen : Civil law. A presentation for exam preparation, arranged according to the requirements. 23rd edition. Vahlen, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8006-3908-3 , Rn. 288.
Remarks
- ↑ The "Jessica" was a steamer built in 1908 by the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (measurement: 998 GRT ), which had been in service with the Imperial Navy since 1914 . With the exception of World War I, the steamer, designed for dry cargo, has been operating on the Hamburg-London line since commissioning and was managed by the Hamburg shipping companies A. Kirsten (1908–1914, 1918–1928, 1934–1945) and HAPAG (1928–1934) . As a result of the Second World War, the ship was handed over to Norway on October 2, 1945 to the Bergen shipping company Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab and renamed "Varnes". In 1947 it was bought back by the A. Kirsten shipping company and renamed "Jessica". In 1952 the steamer was sold for scrapping and dismantled a year later in Hamburg-Altenwerder . (See list of ships of A. Kirsten Reederei , The Fleets: A. Kirsten 1878-1975 , German vessels left for temporary Norwegian manning and operation 1945-46 ), ( Photo 1 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Photo 2 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ Frank Bell, Lothar Boll, Dirk Kennner: Decision-making revision course on civil law. Supreme court case law for students and trainee lawyers , C. Heymanns, Köln u. a., 1987, ISBN 3-452-21072-3 , case 4 (RGZ 99, 147), pp. 22-25.