Legal Question in Business Law in California
Chest Sold From Under Us
Awhile back, my wife and I purchased a chest from a furniture store. We paid for the chest in advance and was told it would be in the store in about a week.
About the time the chest was due in the store, my wife went back to her native country to visit her family. When the store called our house to inform us that the chest was in, our daughter who took the call, told the salesman that her mother was out of the country.
After getting off work, I drove over to the store to pick up the chest, only to be told that it had been sold to another party. I was told that at the time they had called, there was another person in the store who wanted to buy it and after being told that my wife was out of the country, the store sold our chest to the other party. I asked the person what kind of an idiot would do that? Didn't it occur to them that my wife may have made an arrangement for another person to pick up the chest? The store did manage to secure another chest, but my question is this.
Is it legal for a store to sell something which they had already received payment for? And what would be the stores liability if the chest we had already paid for had been discontinued and ours was the last one?
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Chest Sold From Under Us
I consider this a kind of theoretical question, since in your case little if any recoverable damages were sustained. Just for the record, however, I believe the Uniform Commercial Code would say that when goods (1) have been paid for; (2) are to be picked up at the seller's premises; and (3) specific unit(s) are identified to the contract; that title passes and the so-identified unit(s) belong to the buyer.
So, in theory, the store sold a chest that belonged to you. This is neither criminal nor subject to any significant damage award in a civil suit, however.
Additional paragraphs could be written about your potential legal remedies against the seller and the third-party buyer to recover the goods or for money damages, the difference between "unique" goods and goods where one unit may be substituted for another, but the UCC is very practical about limiting the availability of damages to the actual harm done and not allowing recovery for a seller's (or buyer's) blunder that is easily rectified.
Re: Chest Sold From Under Us
You didn't say whether the store offered back the money you paid. They should. If they don't, then a lawyer should get involved to help you recover the money.
Re: Chest Sold From Under Us
Mr. Cohen's answer seems to presume that you never received the furniture at all, but your question indicates to me that you received another, identical piece. If that is the case then you have no claim against the store, and I think Mr. Cohen would agree with me.
Mr. Olden and Mr. Whipple have given correct answers, but did not explain things as clearly as they might have. You didn't purchase a particular chest but rather a particular kind of chest, so you got what you paid for and have not been injured. You therefore have no claim. Had it turned out that the chest they sold out from under you was the last of its kind, this would most likely be a simple breach of contract case and your damages would be limited to a refund of your purchase price.
Of course, my answer is based on the limited facts you have provided and might be different if I knew additional facts.
Re: Chest Sold From Under Us
its water under the bridge so my advice is forget it, what ifs don't count under the law in a trial court but what did happen does, if it couldn't be replaced or you suffered real, not emotional, damages as a result in the dely then you would have a claim, my opinion, no good attorney would handle it
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