United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Standard Rice Co., Inc., 323 U.S. 106 (1944)

United States v. Standard Rice Co., Inc.

No. 72

Argued November 16, 1944

Decided December 4, 1944

323 U.S. 106

Syllabus

1. A contract for the sale of material to the United States contained the following provision:

"Prices bid herein include any federal tax heretofore imposed by the Congress which is applicable to the material on this bid. Any sales tax, duties, imposts, revenues, excise or other taxes which may hereafter (the date set for the opening of this bid) be imposed by the Congress and made applicable to the material on this bid will be charged to the Government and entered on invoices as a separate item."

Held, that the United States was not entitled to recover from the contractor processing taxes imposed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which taxes

Page 323 U. S. 107

were "applicable" to the material within the meaning of the contract, but which, because subsequently adjudged invalid, were never collected from the contractor. United States v. Kansas Flour Mills Corp., 314 U. S. 212, distinguished. P. 323 U. S. 110.

2. Generally the United States as a contractor is to be treated as other contractors, and a contract which it draws is not to be judicially revised because it may have been improvident. P. 323 U. S. 111.

101 Ct.Cls. 85 affirmed.

Certiorari, 322 U.S. 725, to review a judgment denying an offset to a claim against the United States.