Burr v. Sherwin Williams Co

In Burr v. Sherwin Williams Co. (1954) 42 Cal.2d 682, the Supreme Court recognized that statutory implied warranties may be disclaimed by the seller "provided the buyer has knowledge or is chargeable with notice of the disclaimer before the bargain is complete." ( Id. at p. 693.) In determining whether an effective disclaimer of statutory warranties has been made, however, the entire document containing the disclaimer language must be examined (there, the label on a drum of insecticide); and the disclaimer itself will be strictly construed against the seller. ( Id. at pp. 693-694.) Under the rule of strict construction, the disclaimer before the Court was limited to any warranty concerning "use"--that is, any warranty that the substance sold to the plaintiffs was an effective or safe insecticide--and not the implied warranty that the substance sold actually met the description of the product ordered by the plaintiffs: "More specifically, there is nothing in the disclaimer which suggests that Sherwin Williams was refusing to warrant that the liquid in the drums was compounded so as to conform with the description and was free from any impurity which would make it unsalable for the general purposes of a product of the kind ordered by the plaintiffs." ( Id. at p. 695.)