2006 Ohio Revised Code - 1302.97. (UCC 2-723, 2-724) Proof of market price; time and place; admissibility of market quotations.

§ 1302.97. (UCC 2-723, 2-724) Proof of market price; time and place; admissibility of market quotations.
 

(A)  If an action based on anticipatory repudiation comes to trial before the time for performance with respect to some or all of the goods, any damages based on market price, sections 1302.82 or 1302.87 of the Revised Code, shall be determined according to the price of such goods prevailing at the time when the aggrieved party learned of the repudiation. 

(B)  If evidence of a price prevailing at the times or places described in sections 1302.01 to 1302.98, inclusive, of the Revised Code, is not readily available, the price prevailing within any reasonable time before or after the time described or at any other place which in commercial judgment or under usage of trade would serve as a reasonable substitute for the one described may be used, making any proper allowance for the cost of transporting the goods to or from such other place. 

(C)  Evidence of a relevant price prevailing at a time or place other than the one described in sections 1302.01 to 1302.98, inclusive, of the Revised Code, offered by one party is not admissible unless and until he has given the other party such notice as the court finds sufficient to prevent unfair surprise. 

(D)  Whenever the prevailing price or value of any goods regularly bought and sold in any established commodity market is in issue, reports in official publications or trade journals or in newspapers or periodicals of general circulation published as the reports of such market shall be admissible in evidence. The circumstances of the preparation of such a report may be shown to affect its weight but not its admissibility. 
 

HISTORY: 129 v S 5. Eff 7-1-62.

 

Official Comment

To eliminate the most obvious difficulties arising in connection with the determination of market price, when that is stipulated as a measure of damages by some provision of this Article [Chapter]. Where the appropriate market price is not readily available the court is here granted reasonable leeway in receiving evidence of prices current in other comparable markets or at other times comparable to the one in question. In accordance with the general principle of this Article [Chapter] against surprise, however, a party intending to offer evidence of such a substitute price must give suitable notice to the other party. 

This section is not intended to exclude the use of any other reasonable method of determining market price or of measuring damages if the circumstances of the case make this necessary. 

To make market quotations admissible in evidence while providing for a challenge of the material by showing the circumstances of its preparation. 

No explicit provision as to the weight to be given to market quotations is contained in this section, but such quotations, in the absence of compelling challenge, offer an adequate basis for a verdict. 

Market quotations are made admissible when the price or value of goods traded "in any established market" is in issue. The reason of the section does not require that the market be closely organized in the manner of a produce exchange. It is sufficient if transactions in the commodity are frequent and open enough to make a market established by usage in which one price can be expected to affect another and in which an informed report of the range and trend of prices can be assumed to be reasonably accurate. 

This section does not in any way intend to limit or negate the application of similar rules of admissibility to other material, whether by action of the courts or by statute. The purpose of the present section is to assure a minimum of mercantile administration in this important situation and not to limit any liberalizing trend in modern law.