Perfect tender rule

{{Short description|United States commercial transaction law}}

In the United States, the perfect tender rule refers to the legal right for a buyer of goods to insist upon "perfect tender" by the seller.{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/perfect_tender_rule|title=Perfect Tender Rule|publisher=Wex Legal Dictionary and Encyclopedia|via=Cornell Law School|accessdate=April 21, 2023}} The rule appears in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) § 2-601.{{cite web|last=Miletsky|first=Robert|url=https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/ucc-rights-and-responsibilities-for-purchasing-materials-or-equipment|title=UCC Rights and Responsibilities for Purchasing Materials or Equipment|publisher=International Risk Management Institute|date=August 2, 2019|accessdate=April 21, 2023}} The UCC was designed "to simplify, clarify, modernize, and make uniform the law of commercial transactions."{{cite web|last1=Schmitt|first1=Michael A.|last2=Frisch|first2=David|url=https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1812&context=law-faculty-publications|title=The Perfect Tender Rule - An "Acceptable" Interpretation|publisher=Richmond Law|date=1982|accessdate=April 28, 2023}}

In a contract for the sale of goods, if the goods fail to conform exactly to the description in the contract (whether as to quality, quantity, or manner of delivery) the buyer may nonetheless accept the goods, or reject the goods, or reject the nonconforming part of the tender and accept the conforming part.{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/2-601|title=§ 2-601. Buyer's Rights on Improper Delivery.|publisher=Wex Legal Dictionary and Encyclopedia|via=Cornell Law School|accessdate=April 21, 2023}} The buyer does not have an unfettered ability to reject tender.

While the UCC § 2-601 codifies the perfect tender rule, it also expressly limits it by "referring to § 2-612, which pertains to installment contracts, and § 2-718 and 2-719, which allow contractual limitations on remedies."{{cite journal|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol69/iss1/5/|title=Uniform Commercial Code--Sales--Sections 2-508 and 2-608--Limitations on the Perfect-Tender Rule|journal=Michigan Law Review|publisher=University of Michigan|volume=69|issue=1|pages=130–148|date=November 1970|doi=10.2307/1287452|jstor=1287452 |url-access=subscription}} Other UCC provisions also restrict the perfect tender concept.

Contrast the perfect tender rule, which applies through the UCC to the sale of goods, with the substantial performance doctrine, which applies in the common law to non-UCC cases.