U. S. Propellers, Inc. v. Zenith Plastics Co.

This appeal is from a judgment in an action for breach of contract.

A résumé of the facts is as follows:

Western Electric Company contracted with an agency of the United States Government to produce a radar set for the nation’s air defense system. Western Electric, in turn, let a two and one-quarter million dollar subcontract to Zenith Plasties Company (hereinafter referred to as “Zenith”) in the first half of 1957 to produce a component of that radar set. One of the essential features of this subcontract was the absolute necessity of meeting the delivery date of an acceptable first article by Zenith. Pursuant to this contract, Zenith determined which parts of this component could be manufactured by Zenith itself, and which parts by subcontractors of Zenith. One of the parts within the latter category was the metal honeycomb fabrication for a parabolic reflector antenna assembly.

In the latter part of May 1957, Zenith distributed requests for quotations on this component to various possible subcontractors. One of these subcontractors, U. S. Propellers, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “U.S.P.”), submitted a quotation on June 10th to supply 140 such parabolic reflectors and one…