Johnson-Brinkman Commission Co. v. Wabash Railroad

64 Mo. App. 590, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 330
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 20, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 64 Mo. App. 590 (Johnson-Brinkman Commission Co. v. Wabash Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson-Brinkman Commission Co. v. Wabash Railroad, 64 Mo. App. 590, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 330 (Mo. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinion

Ellison, J.

Plaintiff delivered to defendant, on May 23, 1892, a car load of-corn, to be earned from Kansas City, Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois. The delivery was in time to have arrived in Chicago, if defendant had been diligent in transportaion, so as to have been prepared for and put on the market and sold on the thirty-first of May. But defendant, having unreasonably delayed the corn, it did not arrive in time for the market of that day, and plaintiff was compelled to, and did 'afterward, on June 1, sell for a lower price, whereby he alleges he was damaged in a sum representing the difference between the market price on the day it should have arrived and such price on the day he sold. The case stated in the petition is a claim for damages, based on the difference in the market price. The judgment of the trial court was for the plaintiff. The evidence showed that there was no market on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth of May, the former being Sunday and the latter Decoration Day; that on the twenty-eighth the market price for corn was between forty-five and forty-nine cents, and that that was the market value and price on the latter part of the thirty-first, and for several succeeding days. But during a portion of the thirty-first, it sold at the board of trade for as much as $1 per bushel. So, in short, it may be stated that the case shows that just before the thirty-[593]*593first of May and at the close of that day, and for several days thereafter, the market price for corn was between forty-five and forty-nine cents per bushel; but that during a portion of said day it sold at the board of trade for $1 per bushel. It does not appear that it sold for that price at any other place in said city.

The defendant offered evidence tending to prove that the price of $1 per bushel, at which corn sold on a portion of the thirty-first, was not the real value of the corn in the Chicago market, and that such price was not made as the result of any natural or legitimate demand — that it was a fictitious price, brought about by option dealers and manipulations of the market at the board of trade — that it was the result of what is known, in the parlance of such manipula-, tors, as a “corner.” The trial court excluded such evidence.

It may be said that the case presents two questions: One, whether plaintiff is entitled to recover the difference in the market price of the corn, as claimed in his petition, as distinguished from market value; the other, whether the high price at which he showed corn sold on May 31, was the market price.

The market price and market value of an article of commerce are ordinarily the same, and, therefore, generally and ordinarily, the two terms mean the same thing, ■and courts ordinarily permit the market price of an article to be the measure of its market value. The market price is evidence of market value, but it is not conclusive. There are instances — instances of more frequent recurrence of late years — where the market price is not the market value, as understood in the law. Tiedeman on Sales, sec. 47; Acebel v. Lacy, 10 Bing. 376; Kountze v. Kirkpatrick, 72 Pa. St. 376. The maket value is that which arises from the ordinary transactions of buying [594]*594and selling, and, doubtless, .includes the ordinary vicissitudes of prices in business. In speaking of the market value of land, the supreme court of Iowa said that the market value depended upon sales as they ordinarily occurred, and that the “extraordinary or unusual can not be regarded as rules by which human transactions, or conduct, can be squared.” Everett v. Railroad, 59 Iowa, 243.

In Acebelv. Levy, 10 Bing. 376, it is said: “A contract to furnish a cargo at a reasonable price means such a price as the jury shall, under all the circumstances, decide to be reasonable. This price may, or may not, agree with the current price of the commodity at the port of shipment, at the precise time when such shipment is made. The current price of the day may be highly unreasonable from accidental circumstances, as on account of the commodity having been purposely kept back by the vendor himself, or with reference to the price at other ports in the immediate vicinity, or from various other causes.”

When there are extraordinary convulsions of the market, brought about by illegal combinations, or by the manipulations of parties dealing in what are known as “options,” or where the market is “cornered” on particular articles of property, the price which may be forced (whether up or down) on the article in question, can not be said to be the market value of such article, even though it may be so general in its application and effect as to be the market price. The general market price of property in a locality may be fictitious, and may be suddenly brought about by unlawful combinations for illegal or speculative purposes, whereby prices in the general market are made to double or quadruple within a few hours, when, at the same time, there has been no change in the quantity or quality of the article thus enhanced, or any legitimate demand at [595]*595all commensurate with the advanced price. So, a market price may be made of articles which are manufactured or produced by a limited number of persons, by the unlawful combination of such persons in arbitrarily fixing a price upon such property, regardless of its value, or the ordinary effect of competitive trade/ Lovejoy v. Michels, 88 Mich. 15. Courts know these things as a part of the commercial history of the country, and it is not improper for them to heed what has become common knowledge. Did the prices (even if they could be said to be market prices) which ruled on the stock board in New York, on ‘‘black Friday,” represent the market value of the stocks on that day? No one would say so. In speaking of the market value of articles of personal property, as a measure of damages as distinguished from the price in the market, Chief Justice Nelson, in Smith v. Griffin, 3 Hill, 333, said: “I admit that a mere speculating price of the article, got up by the contrivance of a few interested dealers, with a view to control the market for their own private end, is not the true test. The law, in regulating the measure of damages, contemplates a range of the entire market, and the average of prices as thus found, running through a reasonable period of time. Neither a sudden and transient inflation or depression of prices should control the question. These are often accidental, produced by interested and illegitimate combinations for temporary, special, and selfish objects independent of the influences of lawful commerce — a forced and violent perversion of the laws of trade, not within the contemplation of the regular dealer, and not deserving to be regarded as a proper basis upon which to determine the value, when the fact becomes material in the administration of justice. ’ ’ That ease was cited with approval in Durst v. Burton, 47 N. Y. 175. The same just principle was announced in an able and compre[596]*596Pensive opinion by the supreme court of Pennsylvania, in Kountze v. Kirkpatrick, 72 Pa. St. 376, as well as in Hogan v. Donahue, 49 Ill. App. 432. The reasoning in those cases is so just and clear that we have no hesitation in stating it to be the law, that in all cases where the market value is the correct measure of damages, the market price which has been brought about in the unlawful manner indicated will not be considered the market value.

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Bluebook (online)
64 Mo. App. 590, 1896 Mo. App. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-brinkman-commission-co-v-wabash-railroad-moctapp-1896.