90 FOBAGE CROPS IN DENMARK 



of Chr. Daehnfeldt, who was the chairman until 1915, took 

 occasion from the above-named law cases to advise its members 

 to have printed on their invoices and other trade paper a clause 

 to this effect : "No compensation beyond the amount of the 

 invoice is given for defects in root seed due to faulty production 

 or for mistakes in filling the order." This clause was generally 

 adopted from 1905 and onward. 



A retailer had sold 20 cwts. of mangel seed to farmers who 

 found the resulting root crops so bad that they claimed com- 

 pensation, and the retailer paid them 300. He then sued the 

 wholesale firm to repay him this amount, but the Court found 

 in 1910, that although the seed was undoubtedly bad, the 

 wholesaler was protected by the above clause, and decided that 

 the retailer was only entitled to the amount of the invoice, 

 or 35. 



It was, however, not only because of the clause that the 

 wholesale firm was let off so cheaply. Even without the clause, 

 it was the custom in the wholesale trade in root seed to refuse 

 to pay compensation for faulty seed or for errors in* filling the 

 order, beyond the amount of the invoice. And a Law on 

 Purchase, of 6th April, 1906, gives its sanction to such trade 

 customs. Sect. 43, third paragraph, of that Law provides that 

 the seller of goods of certain kinds (goods the quality of which 

 is determined by their special kind, for instance, root seed 

 of special strains) is liable to pay to the buyer compensation 

 for faults or defects in the goods, even if he is blameless, that 

 is, even if the defect is not due to any remissness on his part. 

 But Sect. 1 of the same Law provides, that the provisions of 

 the Law shall only apply in case no other conditions of sale 

 have been stipulated, or must be considered as implied in the 

 conditions of sale, or form part of the custom of trade or other 

 custom. As it was the custom of the trade in root seed, that is 

 to say the wholesale trade, to pay no compensation beyond 

 the amount of the invoice, it follows that retailers could claim 

 no compensation beyond the amount of the invoice unless the 

 wholesale firm expressly agreed to pay a larger compensation, 

 and this they were careful not to do. 



But the retailer was, according to custom, and according 

 to several legal decisions (by the High Court in 1888 and 



