Paxton v. Meyer, Weis & Co.

Citations

• 58 Miss. 445

Syllabus

<p>1. Deed of Trust. For supplies to laborer. Price, how fixed.</p> <p>Where a deed of trust, taken by a merchant upon a laborer’s crop to secure payment for goods which the former obligates himself to furnish, to a certain amount, to the latter during a given year, does not fix the price at which the goods are to be charged, and it is not fixed by any other agreement, the law fixes it at what the goods are reasonably worth at the time and place of sale. And in determining the reasonable value of goods thus sold at retail and on a credit, a court or jury should look in a great measure to the average of the prices charged by shopkeepers and retailers, as shown b}' cash sales and sales on a credit to solvent purchasers. The inquiry in such case should be, not as to the usual or market price, but as to the reasonable value of the goods; and the market price should be considered only as one of the means of determining the reasonable value.</p> <p>2. Same. Goods sold thereunder. Contract price, when disregarded.</p> <p>In a suit to enforce such deed of trust as is above indicated, where the proof shows that the prices charged, though agreed upon by the parties at the time of each delivery of goods, were exorbitant, largely more than the reasonable value of the goods, and only defended by the alleged insecurity of the debt, it is proper for the court to disregard such contract prices and to direct an account to be stated “at such rates for the articles charged as shall appear to have been customary, lair, and reasonable.” Ordinarily, in the absence of fraud, the price agreed upon is binding, but where very exorbitant a court should not permit it to stand, unless it be shown that the parties traded on equal terms, and no advantage was taken of the ignorance or necessities of the buyer. In this case the parties were not on equal terms when the prices were agreed upon, as the buyer had previously circumscribed his means of obtaining credit by the deed of trust to the seller,