Patrick, a collector of rare piranha fish, decided that he needed a new tank to house his valuable collection of fish: Commercial Law Assignment, SMU, Singapore

Patrick, a collector of rare piranha fish, decided that he needed a new tank to house his valuable collection of fish to be shown at the Annual Tropical fish exhibition. He purchased a tank from a specialist shop – Mermaid Cove, in Sengkang where he is a regular customer. He paid S$2000 for the tank. His brother Ben, who is a plumber, fixed up the tank for him. Three days after Ben had installed the tank, the pump failed, and all but one of the piranha fish died.

Patrick is sure that Ben’s installation work and configuration of the pump were satisfactory, and the pump in the tank was defective. When he telephoned Mermaid Cove, an employee told him that there had been problems with that make of tank in the past. The employee has now left the shop to work for a different company and the owner of the shop denies there have been problems with that make of tank.

Patrick wants to claim compensation from Mermaid Cove for the cost of repairing the tank, (estimated S$450), the cost of replacing the piranha fish, S$3000, the S$800 prize that he feels certain that he would have won at the Annual Tropical fish exhibition and the distress he feels at losing his fish of which he was so fond. Consider and apply the legal principles governing damages.