United States v. Seacoast Gas Co.

204 F.2d 709 (5th Cir. 1953)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Seacoast (D) contracted with the United States (P) to supply gas to a federal housing project. D repudiated the contract after several months blaming its cancellation in P’s breach of contract. D gave P one month’s notice. P then notified D that it was going to solicit bids from other companies. P did and got a low bid from Trion. P then gave D three days to retract the repudiation. If not P would accept the Trion bid for the job and hold D liable for a breach. When D did not respond, P accepted Trion’s bid. Trion and D have the same president. He notified P that D was retracting its repudiation. In point of time, this occurred 3 days after Trion was hired and two days before D’s original 30-day time limit. P refused the retraction, but P had not yet signed the deal with Trion. P sued D for breach. D contends that its retraction was valid as P had not yet changed position to its detriment. The trial court gave the judgment to D. P appealed.