Samuel Freeman Miller

“ When the law requires a sale of property, real or personal, to be made at public auction, after due notice, it is for the purpose of inviting competition among bidders that the highest price may be obtained for what is sold. To make a private bargain beforehand between the party who wishes to buy and the person authorized to sell, as to the price and other incidents of the contract, and then invoke the forms of a public sale with competition to give effect to the private bargain is a course of procedure well calculated to defeat the purpose for which the public sale is required. ”

“ But as the statement of this letter is positive that Norwood was a partner, and as the partnership was then negotiating for the purchase of this mill, we are of opinion that it proves the soundness of the charge on that point. The effect of private arrangements between the partners as to the relative influence and responsibility of each in deciding questions arising in the course of their business is a very different thing from disproving the existence of the partnership.
Another point on which error is assigned arises out of instructions asked by the defendant as to the validity of the sale. ”

“ Graves and the defendants, she had agreed that she would sell the mill to them for $5,000, which they did not think too much. But it was found necessary that she should proceed in the sale according to the laws of Georgia, and she accordingly went there and obtained from the probate court an order of sale. While this was going on she had several interviews with Norwood, who was then running the mill under some arrangement with parties who had leased it from her intestate. ”