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: 1953 Comp., § 50A-2-724, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 96, § 2-724.

OFFICIAL COMMENTS

UCC Official Comments by ALI & the NCCUSL. Reproduced with permission of the PEB for the UCC. All rights reserved.

Prior uniform statutory provision. — None.

Purposes. — 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.

Definitional cross reference. — "Goods". Section 2-105.

Three-year statute of limitation does not apply to causes of action lying in contract. — The three-year limitation period under 37-1-8 NMSA 1978 does not apply to actions lying in contract. The four-year limitation period under the Uniform Commercial Code, 55-2-725 NMSA 1978, applies to actions for breach of warranty where a party seeks to recover damages for personal injuries. Badilla v. Wal-Mart Stores East, Inc., 2015-NMSC-029, rev'g 2013-NMCA-058, 302 P.3d 747.

The nature of the claim, not the essence of injury, governs which statute of limitation applies. — Where plaintiff, who worked as a tree trimmer, purchased work boots from defendant that purported to meet acceptable occupational safety and health administration standards, and after wearing the boots for several months, a piece of rubber on the sole of the boots became unglued, and while at work cutting down dead tree limbs, the unglued piece of the sole of the boots got caught on debris, causing plaintiff to fall, drop a log on himself, and injure his back, plaintiff claimed that defendant made express and implied warranties about the work boots, that the work boots were not as warranted, that defendant breached a contract for sale of goods, and that plaintiff has the right to recover any damages resulting from defendant's breach of that warranty. The nature of the right plaintiff's claims asserted was the right to receive consequential damages as compensation for defendant's alleged failure to provide plaintiff with boots that conformed with the warranties defendant allegedly made; the nature of plaintiff's claims lie in contract rather than in tort, and therefore plaintiff's cause of action is governed by the four-year statute of limitations under 55-2-725 NMSA 1978 of the Uniform Commercial Code, not the three-year statute of limitation set forth in 37-1-8 NMSA 1978. Badilla v. Wal-Mart Stores East, Inc., 2015-NMSC-029, rev'g 2013-NMCA-058, 302 P.3d 747.

The three-year personal injury statute of limitation of Section 37-1-8 NMSA 1978 applies when the essence of a claim is in tort for personal injury, even though the claim is presented as a breach of warranty under the Uniform Commercial Code. Badilla v. Wal-Mart Stores East, Inc., 2013-NMCA-058, 302 P.3d 747, cert. granted, 2013-NMCERT-005.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 32A C.J.S. Evidence § 1003, 1004, 1006; 77A C.J.S. Sales § 406 et seq.