A. Newberg & Co. v. United States

41 Cust. Ct. 612
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1958
DocketA. R. D. 92; Entry No. 828012
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 41 Cust. Ct. 612 (A. Newberg & Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. Newberg & Co. v. United States, 41 Cust. Ct. 612 (cusc 1958).

Opinion

MollisoN, Judge:

This is an application for review of the decision of Donlon, J., sitting in. reappraisement, with respect to the value of certain toffee candy imported from England.

Upon the trial of the issue, it appeared that the parties were in agreement that there was no foreign or export value for the merchandise within the meaning of those terms, as defined in section 402 (c) and (d), Tariff Act of 1930, as amended. Appellant here, plaintiff below, contends that a United States value, within the meaning of that term, as defined in section 402 (e) of the said act, as amended, existed, and was 17.87 cents per pound. Appellee here, defendant below, contends that no United States value existed and that cost of production, as defined in section 402 (f) of the act, was the proper basis of value for the merchandise, and that such value was the appraised value. Appellant conceded that if it should be found that no United States value existed, the value returned by the appraiser represented the cost of production of the merchandise.

The court below found that the plain tiff-importer had failed to show by competent proofs that a United States value for the merchandise existed, or, if it did exist, what such United States value was.

Much of the dispute between the parties centers about the effect of a certain agreement made between the plain tiff-importer and the manufacturer and exporter in England. It seems to be reasonably clear that at the time of exportation of the merchandise involved there existed an agreement between the English exporter and the importer providing that the latter was to confine its sales of the toffee candy in the United States to purchasers located in the eastern part of the United States. Appellant contends that even if such an agreement existed, it was not lived up to, and that, in fact, importer freely offered merchandise such as that in issue to all American purchasers who cared to buy, regardless of where located.

Appellee contends that the existence of the agreement created a controlled market in the United States by binding the importer from reselling in other than the specified territory and, consequently, prevented the existence of a statutory United States value.

Both appellant and appellee have cited a number of cases on the subject of the effect upon free offer of merchandise of agreements controlling the use, resale, or disposition of the offered goods. It seems unnecessary to discuss such cases in detail, for, as stated by our appellate court in one of them, United States v. Graham & Zenger, Inc., 31 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 131, C. A. D. 262, at page 134:

* * * all lay down the principle that a foreign market is controlled when restrictions are imposed on the resale, free use, dominion over the merchandise, or confining of. sales to selected purchasers.

[614]*614All of such cases relate to the effect of restrictive offers in the market where the goods are offered so restricted. There is some evidence in this case that in offering its merchandise for sale in England for exportation to the United States the English manufacturer and exporter made some agreement with the importer herein restricting the territorial area in which the goods might be resold in the United States. Evidence of such an agreement, under the cited cases, would establish that the offer, in England, of such merchandise for sale for exportation to the United States was coupled with a restraint upon the resale, use, or disposition of the goods, and would prevent a finding of export value (sec. 402 (d)), i. e., that the merchandise was freely offered for sale in the foreign market for exportation to the United States.

We do not think, however, that such a restriction “runs with the merchandise,” to borrow a phrase from real property law, and necessarily characterizes its offer in the domestic or United States market. Evidence of the fact that the agreement existed might constitute the foundation for further evidence tending to establish that there was a restrictive offering of the merchandise in the United States market, but it would not, standing alone, establish the fact of restricted offer in the United States market. There would have to be some evidence that the agreement was enforced, or was lived up to, in order to establish the fact of a restricted or controlled market in the United States.

Appellant contends that it established by testimonial and documentary evidence that it freely offered merchandise such as that here involved to all purchasers throughout the United States.

The testimonial evidence was given by Abraham Shenkman, who identified himself as the office manager and secretary of the appellant at the times here pertinent. His duties were to calculate costs, make up selling prices in consultation with the president of the firm, and “take care of all of the imports.” There were six salesmen for the firm, which was a wholesaler of imported and domestic confectionary items, five working out of New York and one out of Los Angeles. The six, among them covered the United States, and Mr. Shenkman supervised them at least to the extent that he wrote up the stock books and notified the salesmen of the selling prices.

It appears that at the same time another individual, one Mai New-berg, was the general sales manager, but the extent of his authority, particularly over sales policies of the firm, the salesmen, and over Mr. Shenkman, is very poorly defined in the record.

It is Mr. Shenkman’s testimony that, during the period from 1949 to 1951, which includes the time of exportation of the involved merchandise, the prices at which his firm offered and sold toffee candy such as that at bar to all purchasers throughout the United States [615]*615in the usual wholesale quantities of 1 chest, or 126 pounds, or more, did not fluctuate, and were 26 cents per pound to department stores and small retail stores, and 24 cents per pound to chain stores.

In support of these statements, there were offered and received in evidence as collective exhibit 1 copies of 164 invoices identified as having been taken at random from the files of the appellant and said to be representative of sales made during the period from November 1949 through June 1950 by the appellant firm of toffee candy such as that at bar. It appears that the sales represented by the invoices did not constitute all of the sales of such toffee made by the appellant firm during that period, but that they were offered to support and corroborate Mr. Shenkman’s testimony that his firm, during the period in question, was offering and selling merchandise such as that at bar without geographical or territorial restriction, i. e., throughout the United States.

The invoices show sales made in what might be termed the north, east, south, and west of the United States. In considering their weight as evidence, however, the court below assigned no weight as evidence of the free offering of merchandise such as that at bar throughout the United States to (1) sales made in states east of the Mississippi River, (2) sales made to a single purchaser at a central office located in Chicago but for delivery to various localities in other states, and (3) sales made at times other than the time of exportation (which was considered to be May 1950).

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Bluebook (online)
41 Cust. Ct. 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-newberg-co-v-united-states-cusc-1958.