Court Opinion

ID: 9445570
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:33:17.911566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:19.909982
License: Public Domain

DENMAN, Chief Judge
(concurring in the result).
*514The determining question in this case is whether Rosenberg Bros., in fixing the amounts of its bids to sell to the Commodity Credit Corporation raisins which it did not then have, can rely on that Corporation’s statement on September 5, 1947, that it intended to purchase “a maximum of * * * 61,000 tons of [Thompson seedless] raisins” conditioned by the following, “if the purchase of this total quantity * * * is necessary to provide outlets for the relatively large 1947 production.”
If such a statement had been made by a private corporation having a wide market control, it well could be argued that having made bids a dealer like Rosenberg Bros, could hold the corporation liable if, after accepting a bid it then proceeded so to increase its purchases that the costs of the raisins to Rosenberg were thereby increased. In such a situation, Rosenberg might be entitled to recover damages based upon the cost to it of the raisins if the 61,000 ton representation had been complied with.
However, the Commodity Credit Corporation is not such an ordinary buyer. It is a government institution whose duty with respect to the Thompson seedless raisin industry is stated by Congress in the Act creating it to be that of “stabilizing, supporting, and protecting farm income and prices, of assisting in the maintenance of balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities * * * and of facilitating the orderly distribution”1 thereof. It seems clear that the policy announced by Congress in this statute requires that the Corporation be free at all times to adjust and readjust its operations to changing conditions in order to achieve its objectives. Rosenberg is, of course, charged with knowledge of the governmental purpose of the Commodity Credit Corporation.
Here it is unquestioned that the statement of the anticipated limit of raisin purchases was made sometime before the harvesting had begun of the grapes to be later cured as raisins. It is obvious that the total quantity of raisins ultimately to be produced from the Thompson seedless grapes might differ from the amount on which the statement of September 5th was based. Likewise the foreign and domestic demand for such raisins against the competition of other dried fruits and confections might be so much less than expected as to require the purchase by the government of an even greater amount than that stated on September 5th, in which event it would be the duty of the governmental corporation to increase its purchases thereby “supporting and protecting farm income and prices”. That is to say, the maximum quantity of Thompson seedless raisins to be purchased specified in the September 5th announcement well might prove to be insufficient and require eventual enlargement. So also the production may have been less or the foreign and domestic demand greater, requiring government purchase of a lesser amount than 61,000 tons.
All the above must be deemed obvious to a bidder offering to sell raisins under the request for bids later made by the Corporation, and hence such bidder must be deemed to have accepted the chance of lesser profit or loss by a decrease or a larger profit by an increase of the amount of Thompson raisins available for purchase.
It well may be that the action of the Corporation would warrant the unilateral rescission of the contracts of sale. That question, however, is not before us because instead of rescinding, Rosenberg Bros, proceeded to perform the contract and is not entitled to recover on the basis of the increased cost of the raisins, having entered, as stated, into the contracts charged with the knowledge of the obligation of the Corporation to increase or decrease its purchases should conditions so require.

. Title 15 U.S.C.A. § 714.