Case ID: us-ct-cl_58/html/0712-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Butler", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

WILLARD, SUTHERLAND & CO. v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [56 C. Cls. 413; 262 U.S. 489.]
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
    A contract for the purchase of coal by the Government at a stated price per ton which does not require the Government to take, or limit its demand to, any ascertainable quantity, is unenforceable, for lack of consideration and mutuality.
    Such a contract, however, becomes valid and binding to the extent to which it is performed, and a party who, abandoning an earlier protest, voluntarily delivers coal under the contract, is limited to the contract price, and can not recover more from the United States.
   Mr. Justice Butler

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court June 4,1923.