An agricultural cooperative sued Carroll Nelson for breach of contract under UCC Article 2. Nelson was a Texas wheat farmer and had an oral contract with the cooperative for the purchase of his wheat. The cooperative had forwarded to Nelson a written confirmation of the agreement, but Nelson did not acknowledge or sign any confirmation. When the cooperative initiated the lawsuit, Nelson raised the statute of fraud as a defense. He claimed that because he was not a merchant, a signed memorandum with his signature of some sort was needed for the contract to be enforceable. The cooperative claimed that because Nelson was a merchant, the unobjected-to memorandum satisfied the statute of frauds for agreements between merchants. Is farmer Nelson a merchant?
