MADE TO measure
BE WARY OF ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE AT FARMERS’ MARKETS
At a farmer’s market recently, you purchased a beautifully boxed “pound of butter” from a local boutique dairy supplier. The box of butter weighed exactly a pound and the goods tasted beautiful. But are you still allowed to sell goods using the old imperial measures?
You are not allowed to sell goods in New Zealand in the old imperial weights. No doubt this boutique supplier is innocently trying to create an old-school feel about this product. I wouldn’t be too worried. I wonder if somewhere on the packaging there is also a kilo or gram weight? This might be an interesting issue to raise with stallholders the next time you’re at the market. There is another issue you didn’t mention, though. If you were charged for a pound of butter, then the weight of the whole boxed item should be a pound plus the weight of the packaging. It seems you may have been slightly overcharged if the whole boxed goods weighed just a pound. Again, I wouldn’t be overly concerned. One expects a relaxed environment at a market, but this is another thing to bring to their attention.
While out Christmas shopping, one of your infant children suddenly felt ill. As you were attending to her, your other child walked too close to a large glass vase, knocked it over and smashed it. You don’t consider you acted carelessly as a parent. It was simply one of those occasions when you couldn’t be everywhere at once. Should you have to pay for the vase?
I don’t think so. In shops, you have to pay for damage caused by your children only if you were not taking reasonable care of them or were careless. As you point out, you can’t be everywhere at once. It could also be considered that the shop, having a large glass vase down at a young child’s level, contributed to the likelihood of the accident. Even a sign warning that you are responsible for breakages doesn’t alter things if you were not careless or the shop contributed to the accident. Incidentally, a shop cannot force you to pay then and there for accidents. They can take you to the Disputes Tribunal later, but to win there, they must prove you were careless. I don’t think you were.