U.S. Court of Appeals confirms that attorney's fees cannot be claimed as CISG damages

In the case of Brands International Corporation v. Reach Companies, LLC (CISG-online 7006), a dispute arose from of a sales contract for the delivery of hand sanitizers. The U.S. American buyer failed to pay the purchase price for hand sanitizers, resulting in the Canadian seller initiating legal proceedings. The seller sought, among other things, the reimbursement of their attorney’s fees from the buyer. In accordance with the seller’s request, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (court of first instance) awarded the reimbursement of attorney’s fees under Art. 74 CISG (CISG-online 6279).

In applying Art. 7(1) and (2) CISG, the Court of Appeals reversed the previous decision and determined that Art. 74 CISG does not include the awarding of attorney’s fees. In its analysis, the Court considered the “international character” of the CISG (Art. 7(1) CISG) and, inter alia, made reference to the CISG-online website (para. 22), in particular the subcategory “Attorney’s fees”.

This subcategory can be found under: https://cisg-online.org/cisg-article-by-article/part-3/art.-74-cisg/loss-by-category-of-loss/attorneys-fees

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