174 Ct. Cl. 1267 | Ct. Cl. | 1966
Contracts; surplus property. — Plaintiff sues to recover its losses when the Government cancelled part of its contract to sell to plaintiff surplus quinine sulfate. The contract had provided that plaintiff should take equal portions of the surplus quinine in five succeeding years and the contract was specifically made subject to the provisions of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act of 1939, 50 U.S.C. § 98. The contract contained a provision limiting the Government’s liability to the extent that the measure of the Government’s liability to the' purchaser should not exceed the purchase price which the Government has received when a return of the property to the Government is authorized by the Government. In order to maintain stock piles of quinine at an adequate level, the Administrator of General Services was ordered by the Executive Office of the President to defer making further disposals of quinine and to conserve the remaining stocks. Accordingly, plaintiff was asked to agree to a mutual no-cost termination of the contract in the interests of the national defense. Plaintiff refused to agree and General Services Administration notified plaintiff that it would make no more deliveries under the contract and was