Merchantable quality

One interesting law regarding Sale of Goods is Section 16(1)(b) of the Malaysian Sale of Goods Act 1957 where it reads:
“Where goods are bought by description from a seller who deals in goods of that description (whether he is the manufacturer or producer or not) there is an implied condition that the goods shall be of merchantable quality.”
However, the fact is that the word of “merchantable quality” is not defined neither in Malaysia Sale of Goods Act 1957 not English Sale of Goods Act 1893. Still, the English Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973 introduced a definition of merchantable quality based on the recommendations of the Law Commission.

Merchantable quality is a question of fact, in answering that question, the tribunal of fact must be sure that it is applying its mind to the correct meaning of that word.

It is first rose when Lord Roskill has observed that 'the complications regarding the meaning of the word since 1893. They would seem to have arisen because of the gloss that lawyers in this country repeatedly sought to impose on this single and simple word by seeking to redefine it by the use of phrases which, as the cases show, raise as many if not more problems than they solve'.

Cases related to merchantable quality was discussed in Cehave’s Case by Lord Denning. To have a better view on what is merchantable quality, the statement of Lord Denning would surely provide further assistance in determining the merchantability of goods.