Coffee shall be considered accepted as to quality
unless within 15 calendar days after discharge of the coffee, or within 15
calendar days after all Government clearances have been received, whichever is
later, either:
- Claims are settled by the parties to the contract,
or
- Arbitration procedures have been filed by one of
the parties in accordance with the provisions of the contract.
If neither 1. nor 2. has been done within the stated
period, or if any portion of the coffee has been removed from the point of
discharge before representative sealed samples have been drawn by the GCA, in
accordance with its rules, seller's responsibility for quality claims ceases for
that portion so removed.
To initiate a quality arbitration, the claimant must
submit a signed and notarized demand for arbitration in triplicate explicitly
setting forth the precise complaint(s) in detail on GCA form A-2. This must be
accompanied by the original contract, a sampling order to the order of the GCA,
and the requisite arbitration fee. When GCA receives the defendant's answer it
copies it to the claimant, who may either file a reply with GCA or allow the
arbitration to proceed in accordance with the original submission. All
arbitration forms are available from www.green-coffee-assoc.org.
On receipt of the arbitration demand, the defendant
responds by filing their signed and notarized answer in triplicate on GCA form
B-2, together with the requisite fee. This answer must be filed with GCA within
five business days from receipt of the arbitration demand if the defendant's
office is located in New York City. If the defendant's office is not in New York
City, the GCA Secretary can, at his or her discretion, extend any time
requirement beyond that prescribed to give the defendant an equivalent period to
that allowed to a resident.
If the claimant files an answer to the defendant's
reply, the defendant can file an additional response or they can allow the
arbitration to proceed on the basis of their original answer.