Implied warranty: Encyclopedia II - Implied warranty - Fitness for a particular purpose

Implied warranty - Fitness for a particular purpose

An implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, sometimes referred to simply as a warranty of fitness, is a warranty implied by law that if a seller knows or has reason to know of a particular purpose for which some item is being purchased by the buyer, the seller is guaranteeing that the item is fit for that particular purpose. This differs from a warranty of merchantability in two ways:

• First, the warranty of fitness applies to all sellers, not just professional merchants; and
• Second, the warranty of fitness requires the seller to know or have reason to know of a specific purpose to which the property sold is going to be put.

For example, if Joey buys four end-tables from Susan (a non-merchant) and then uses them to prop up his car while he works on the muffler, Susan is not liable for any injury that occurs to Joey - unless Joey told Susan that he was buying the end-tables for that purpose.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Fitness for a particular purpose", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki