Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Abstract
A casebook favorite for exploring the liquid dated damage/penalty clause distinction is Lake River Corp. v. Carborundum Co. in which Judge Posner found a minimum quantity clause to be an unenforceable penalty clause. In this paper I argue that the case was framed improperly. Had the litigators recognized that the contract afforded one party an option, the result should have been different. The contract was for the provision of a service – setting aside capacity – which was valuable to the buyer and costly for the seller to provide. The primary purpose of the minimum quantity clause was the pricing of that service. The case indirectly raised a significant damages issue: if there is an anticipatory repudiation of a contract that is take-or-pay or has a stipulated damage clause, should the promisee's ability to mitigate be taken into account when reckoning damages?
Disciplines
Contracts | Law | Law and Economics
Center/Program
Center for Contract and Economic Organization
Recommended Citation
Victor P. Goldberg,
Cleaning Up Lake River,
3
Va. L. & Bus. Rev.
427
(2008).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/1500