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Section III   Warranty

Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2022)

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Section III   Warranty

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    GENERAL PROVISIONS

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    1416.   The warranty by the seller in favour of the buyer is either legal or conventional. It is intended to provide against the latent defects of the thing sold, and against eviction of the purchaser from the whole or any part of it.

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    1417.   Legal warranty is implied by law in the contract of sale without stipulation. Nevertheless the parties may, by special agreement, add to the obligations of legal warranty, or diminish or exclude them.

§ 1. Warranty against Eviction

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    1418.   The seller is obliged by law to warrant the buyer against eviction from the whole or any part of the thing sold, by reason of the act of the former, or of any right existing at the time of the sale, and against incumbrances not declared and not apparent at the time of the sale.

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    1419.   Although it be stipulated that the seller gives no warranty, this exemption does not cover his personal acts. Any agreement to the contrary is null.

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    1420.   In like manner, when there is a stipulation excluding warranty, the seller in case of eviction is obliged to return the price of the thing sold, unless the buyer knew at the time of the sale the danger of eviction or had bought at his own risk.

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    1421.   Whether the warranty be legal or conventional, the buyer, in case of eviction, has a right to claim from the seller:

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      1.     Restitution of the price;

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      2.     Restitution of the fruits in case he or she is obliged to pay them to the party who evicts him or her;

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      3.     The expenses incurred, as well in his or her action of warranty against the seller as in the original action;

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      4.     Damages, interest and all expenses of the contract;

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    Subject nevertheless to the provision contained in the article next following.

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    1422.   If in the case of warranty the causes of eviction were known to the buyer at the time of the sale, and there be no special agreement, the buyer has a right to recover only the price of the thing sold.

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    1423.   The seller is obliged to make restitution of the whole price of the thing sold, although, at the time of eviction, it be found to be diminished in value, or deteriorated, either by the neglect of the buyer, or by a fortuitous event; unless the buyer has derived a profit from the deterioration caused by him or her, in which case the seller may deduct from the price a sum equal to such profit.

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    1424.   If the thing sold be found, at the time of eviction, to have increased in value, either by or without the act of the buyer, the seller is obliged to pay him or her such increased value over and above the price at which the sale was made.

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    1425.   The seller is obliged to indemnify the buyer, or to cause him or her to be indemnified, for all repairs and useful expenditure made by him or her upon the property sold, according to their value.

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    1426.   If the seller have sold the property of another, in bad faith, he or she is obliged to reimburse the buyer for all expenditures laid out by him or her upon it.

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    1427.   If the buyer suffer eviction from a part only of the thing, or of 2 or more things sold as a whole, which part is nevertheless of such importance in relation to the whole that he or she would not have bought without it, he or she may repudiate the purchase.

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    1428.   If in the case of eviction from a part of the thing or things sold as a whole, the purchase be not repudiated, the buyer has a right to claim from the seller the value of such part, to be estimated proportionally upon the whole price, and also damages to be estimated according to the increased value of the thing at the time of eviction.

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    1429.   If the property sold be charged with a servitude not apparent and not declared, of such importance that it may be presumed the buyer would not have bought if he had been informed of it, he or she may vacate the sale or claim indemnity at his or her option, and in either case may bring his or her action so soon as he or she is informed of the existence of the servitude.

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    1430.   Warranty against eviction ceases in case the buyer fails to make the seller a party to the action in warranty within the delay prescribed in this Code of Civil Procedure, if the seller prove that previous to the expiration of such delay there existed sufficient ground of defence to the action of eviction.

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    1431.   The buyer may enforce the obligation of warranty when, without the intervention of a judgment, he abandons the thing sold or admits the incumbrance upon it, if he or she prove that such abandonment or admission is made by reason of a right which existed at the time of sale.

§ 2. Warranty against Latent Defects

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    1432.   The seller is bound to warrant the buyer against such latent defects in the thing sold, and its accessories, as render it unfit for the use for which it was intended, or so diminish its usefulness that the buyer would not have bought it, or would not have given so large a price, if he or she had known them.

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    1433.   The seller is not liable in respect of defects which are apparent and with which the buyer might have made himself or herself acquainted.

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    1434.   The seller is responsible for latent defects even when they were not known to him or her unless otherwise stipulated.

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    1435.   When several principal things are sold together as a whole, so that the buyer would not have bought one of them without the other, the latent defect in one entitles him or her to repudiate the purchase of the whole.

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    1436.   The buyer has the option of returning the thing and recovering the price, or of keeping the thing and recovering a part of the price according to an estimation of its value.

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    1437.   If the seller knew the defect, he is obliged not only to restore the price of it, but to pay all damages suffered by the buyer.

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    He or she is obliged in like manner in all cases in which he or she is legally presumed to know the defects.

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    1438.   If the seller did not know the defects, or is not legally presumed to have known them, he or she is obliged to restore the price and to reimburse to the buyer the expenses caused by the sale.

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    1439.   If the thing perish by reason of any latent defect which it had at the time of the sale, the loss falls upon the seller, who is obliged to restore the price of it to the buyer, and otherwise to indemnify him, as provided in the 2 last preceding articles.

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    If it perish by the fault of the buyer or by a fortuitous event, the value of the thing in the condition in which it was, at the time of the loss, must be deducted from his or her claim against the seller.

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    1440.   The redhibitory action, resulting from the obligation of warranty against latent defects, must be brought with reasonable diligence, according to the nature of the defect and the usage of Saint Lucia.

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    1441.   In judicial sales there is no warranty against latent defects.

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