Source: http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/anno-art-24.html
Timestamp: 2018-12-13 18:44:41
Document Index: 370925669

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 15', 'art. 15', 'art. 16', 'art. 17', 'art. 18', 'art. 20', 'art. 22', 'Art. 24', 'Art. 24', 'Art. 24', 'art. 24', 'art. 8']

Article 24. Time when Communication "Reaches" Addressee
Text of Article 24
24A Oral communication
24B Other means of communication
24B1 Delivery to place of business or mailing address
24C Delivery to addressee's habitual residence
24D The time a communication "reaches" the other party may be relevant for art. 15(1) - offer; art. 15(2) - withdrawal of offer; art. 16(1) - revocation of offer; art. 17 - rejection; art. 18(2) - acceptance; art. 20(1) - fixed period for acceptance; art. 22 - withdrawal of acceptance
24E Other problems
Reaches, definition of
UNCITRAL has identified relevant cases in Digests containing case annotations for each article of the CISG. For Art. 24, the UNCITRAL Digest cites four cases: three from Germany, and one from The Netherlands.
Presented below is a composite list of Art. 24 cases reporting these UNCITRAL Digest cases and other Art. 24 cases. All cases are listed in chronological sequence, commencing with the most recent. Asterisks identify the UNCITRAL Digest cases, commencing with the 15 September 1997 citation reported below. Cases are coded to the UNCITRAL Thesaurus.
Germany 10 November 2006 Oberlandesgericht [Appellate Court] Dresden (Meat case) 24E [translation available]
Croatia 26 July 2005 High Commercial Court
A/CN.9/SER.C/DIGEST/CISG/24 [8 June 2004]. Reproduced with the permission of UNCITRAL.
For the purposes of the Part of the Convention, an offer, declaration of acceptance or any other indication of intention "reaches" the addressee when it is made orally to him or delivered by any other means to him personally, to his place of business or mailing address or, if he does not have a place of business or mailing address, to his habitual residence.
DIGEST�OF�ARTICLE 24 CASE LAW
1. Article 24 defines, for the purposes of Part II on the formation of the contract, when a communication reaches the other party. The Convention refers to when a communication "reaches" the other party in articles 15(1) (offer), 15(2) (withdrawal of offer), 16(1) (revocation of acceptance), 17 (rejection), 18(2) (acceptance), 20(1) (commencement of time period when instantaneous communication), 21(2) (late acceptance when would have arrived in normal time), and 23 (conclusion of contract).
4. Any other communication reaches the addressee when it is delivered to the addressee personally or delivered to his business or mailing address. If the addressee does not have a place of business or mailing address, the communication is to be delivered to his habitual residence. A communication delivered to the relevant address is effective even if the addressee has changed its address.[2]
5. Article 24 does not expressly mention whether a communication in a language that the addressee is unable to understand "reaches" the addressee. In accordance with paragraphs (1) and (2) of article 8 a communication is to be interpreted in accordance with the common understanding of the parties or with the understanding of a reasonable person of the same kind as the other party would have had in the same circumstances. One court has stated that, in accordance with article 8, a communication does not "reach" the addressee unless the language of the communication was agreed to by the parties, used by the parties in their prior dealings, or customary in the trade.[3] Several other courts have given no effect to standard terms when they were not translated into the language of the other party.[4]
1. But see [NETHERLANDS Arrondissementsrechtbank [District Court] Amsterdam 5 October 1994, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/941005n1.html>] (applying art. 24 to seller's letter in response to buyer's letter explaining reason for partial rejection of the goods).
2. [NETHERLANDS Arrondissementsrechtbank [District Court] Amsterdam 5 October 1994, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/941005n1.html>] (seller's letter in response to buyer's letter explaining reason for partial rejection of the goods "reached" the buyer even though buyer did not receive it because of change of address).
3. CLOUT case No. 132 [GERMANY Oberlandesgericht [Appellate Court] Hamm 8 February 1995, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/950208g3.html>] (discussion of "language risk" in light of art. 8).
4. CLOUT case No. 345 [GERMANY Landgericht [District Court] Heilbronn 15 September 1997, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/970915g1.html>] (standard terms in German language only sent by a German seller to an Italian buyer); [GERMANY Amtsgericht [Lower Court] Kehl 6 October 1995, available online at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/951006g1.html>] (standard terms in German language only sent by a German buyer to an Italian seller).
- UNIDROIT Principles Comparison between provisions of the CISG (Article 24) and the
Pace Law School Institute of International Commercial Law - Last updated June 25, 2009