You’re entitled to damages if your tailor fails to sew your Christmas dress on time – Law lecturer

Despite the bliss that accompanies Christmas, many Ghanaian celebrants are often shattered by the failure of their dressmakers to deliver on agreed timelines.

In many cases, the disappointed customers are only left to vent and walk away, despite their frustrations.

But a law lecturer at the University of Professional Studies Law School, Kweku Attakora Dwomoh, says customers can sue dressmakers for damages if they fail to honour their timelines.

Speaking on The Law on Sunday, he explained that an agreement of timelines between a dressmaker and a client is recognized by law, and therefore a disappointed customer can sue for damages if the dressmaker fails to meet his or her side of the bargain.

Time of delivery in a contract is a condition. So if I tell you that I want [a dress] on the 24th; even with that there are two points in there.

The time of the delivery and the purpose. I tell you I need my jacket or my attire for Christmas. I tell you I need it by the 24th.

You decide to deliver by the 1st. You would have breached that agreement that we had and the buyer is entitled to reject it”, he added.

The UPSA law lecturer made these remarks while contributing to discussions on the rights of a buyer.

In the said discussions, he stressed that just like sellers, buyers also have rights which are legally acknowledged.

According to him, one of such rights is the fact that buyers are entitled to receive the exact goods they ordered from sellers.

Touching on the rights of consumers, he called for the creation of relevant laws to protect the interest of buyers, to safeguard their daily transactions.

Meanwhile, private Legal Practitioner and law lecturer at Central University College, Jude Atakora Tufuor has disclosed that Ghana’s laws do not cover online businesses and transactions.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Law, Sunday, the law lecturer explained that although buying of goods online is not covered by any regulation, the Sale of Goods Act could be applied to online transactions.

According to him, third party online transactions which uses platforms like ebay, amazon and Jumia where the seller is not really known but payments are made and goods delivered are also covered by the Sale of Goods Act.

Atakora Tufuor said online transactions on Whatsapp and Facebook are technically operating outside the Electronic Transactions Act and cannot be defended by the Sale of Goods Act.