Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Bussiness Dispute

Well, I'd say whether you have a legitimate and enforceable complaint against your supplier depends upon a whole lot more than just whether an SGS report made six months after the container of goods is delievered to you is valid or invalid.

Presumably you unloaded the container soon after its arrival rather than incur six months' demurrage charges. This would have given you ample opportunity to sample and inspect the merchandise; it would also have exposed the merchandise to a variety of unknown conditions for weathering, exposure to temperature changes, pilferage, and so on.

Further, I think the ultimate authority as to whether an SGS report made long after the goods arrive is the SGS itself. What do they say about the validity of a report made after six months? Maybe it depends upon what they're being asked to certify - country of origin might be one thing, while presence of volatile toxic xhemicals quite another.

Perhaps most important, what does your contract say? Ordnary commercial law requires a purchaser of goods to open, inspect and make claims within a reasonable time. Is six months reasonable here? Probably not. However, if the defect is hidden or the seller took steps to conceal the defect, i.e. committed fraud, maybe six months isn't at all unreasonable.