ABSTRACT
It is difficult to state the modern classification of contract terms because the law on this has not settled the list conclusively, and perhaps never will. When Judge Chalmers started his work on codifying the law of sale of goods, which ended in the Sale of Goods Act 1893, the uncertainties of the classification of contract terms, especially the warranty, presented him with a problem. His intention was to state the law exactly as it had been decided by the courts, but, in order to produce a coherent code, he had to classify contract terms, especially the implied terms as to quality. Modern contract law can be seen starting to emerge from the mists of assumpsit in the mid-eighteenth century. According to classic theory a warranty is collateral to the main purpose of the contract; no breach of a warranty by one party, however serious the consequences, ever entitles the other to bring the contract to an end.
