United States v. P & D Coal Mining Co., Inc.

This case involves the construction of a “maximum-minimum” contract for the purchase and sale of not less than ten thousand nor more than fifty thousand tons of coal.

An excellent description of this type of contract appears in Taggert v. Brimfield, 281 F. 830, 831 (C.A. 3, 1922):

“Contracts of this general type are common, where a manufacturer has to provide in advance for a supply of some needed material, the exact amount of which he cannot then specify. In this uncertainty, he names a minimum, which on his part he positively agrees to take, and he names a maximum up to, but not beyond, which…