Sinason Teicher Inter American Grain Corp. v. Commodity Credit Corporation

267 F.2d 493

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

We affirm the summary judgment granted to defendant, the Commodity Credit Corporation. Its contract for the sale of beans to plaintiff “for export” imposed on the buyer an obligation to export that was of the essence. The contract bristles with provisions, both general and specific, pointing up this purpose so sharply that it can be ignored only on pain of impalement. The fact that there are also provisions in the contract relating to sale “in store” at a higher price, upon the buyer’s failure to take delivery or to export, does not convert the contract into one effecting an absolute sale, with the buyer free to exercise an option not to export merely on the payment of a premium. These provisions define certain consequences of the buyer’s failure, consequences that could be available only by contract; but there is nothing to suggest, as the plaintiff seems to assume, that these consequences are exclusive or that the defendant has contracted away the usual contract remedy of rescission. By failing to make timely arrangements for the export of 85% of the beans sold to it for export, the plaintiff committed a material breach of contract justifying rescission by the defendant.