B. Dickson & Co. v. United States

3 Cust. Ct. 109, 1939 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1766
United States Customs Court·Decided September 14, 1939·No. C. D. 214·Published

Opinion

Evans, Judge:

This is an action against the United States in which the plaintiffs seek a judgment from this court directing the collector of customs at the port of New York to post or repost the liquidation of certain mail entries involved herein. The entries were made under the Tariff Act of 1922. The protest herein was filed May 15, 1937, and is as follows:

Protest is made against your decision as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable and as to all exactions and your liquidation or reliquidation and your refusal to reliquidate and your refusal to post or repost the liquidations or re-liquidations of the following entries of merchandise for the reason that you have not heretofore posted the said liquidations or reliquidations in such a manner as to give reasonable notice thereof to the importer in accordance with the decisions of the U. S. Customs Court published in abstract 48900 of March 6, 1925, and T. D. 42744 of May 12, 1928, and article 352 of the Customs Regulations of 1923.
It is claimed that the posting should have included the name of the importer and that the entries should have been stamped “liquidated” at the time of such posting in order to comply with the requirement of notice of liquidation provided [110] for in section 504 of the Tariff Act of 1922, and any so-called notice or posting of liquidations or reliquidations which did not set forth the name of the importer is not a reasonable compliance with said section 504.
It is further claimed that the merchandise is dutiable at 60 percent under paragraph 31 of the Tariff Act of 1922, which is more specific than, and because of the proviso thereto, controls over paragraph 1430 or any other paragraph of the Tariff Act of 1922 under which duty was assessed (note Abstract 30615, Gartner & Moll, et al., v. United States).
This protest is filed against your refusal to repost the liquidations or reliquida-tions of said entries as noted in your letter of May 8, 1937, to Brooks & Brooks, Esqs., of 39 Broadway, New York City.

In December 1937 a stipulation was entered into in which both sides agreed that the merchandise here involved is in all material respects similar to that passed upon by this court in Abstract 37230, the record in that case being incorporated herein.

No testimony was produced by either side and at a later hearing, viz, on December 20, 1938, the case was submitted upon the following the stipulation:

It is hereby stipulated and agreed that—
1. The entries covered by the above entitled protest were made during the years 1927, 1928, and 1929, and, accordingly, were subject to the duties and administrative provisions of the Tariff Act of 1922;
2. Each of said entries covered an importation by mail, which did not exceed 8100 in value; (See Tariff Act of 1922, seetioln 498);
3. Each of said entries was made on Customs Form 3420;
4. Customs Form 3420 is the same as Customs Form 3419, provided for in Customs Regulations of 1923, Article 352, except that it was for use exclusively at the Port of New York;
5. Each of said entries was liquidated in accordance with the provisions of section 504, Tariff Act of 1922, the material portion of which reads:
* * *, the collector shall ascertain, fix, and liquidate the rate and amount of duties to be paid on such merchandise as provided by law and shall give notice of such liquidation in the form and manner prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, * * *.
6. The “form and manner prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury” (pursuant to the Statutory provision above quoted) to “give notice of such liquidation” is embodied in Article 352, Customs Regulations, 1923, which reads:
Mail entries on Customs Form 3419 will be formally liquidated, and the date of liquidation stamped thereon. A carbon copy of the consolidated statement on Customs Form 5171 covering such entries will be posted as the notice of liquidation. All entries liquidated during any month may be stamped as liquidated on the last dav of that month, at which time the copy of Customs Form 5171, similarly stamped, should be posted.
7. None of the entries had “the date of liquidation stamped thereon” as provided for in the above quoted regulation;
8. Customs Form 5171 was posted each month, during the period covered by said entries, in bound books the topmost page, and a few other pages at random, of which were stamped “Liquidated” and also stamped with the date of the last day of some particular month; the accompanying bound book, the back of which is marked in blue pencil “MAIL MAR. 1930” is a typical and representative book; the entry made on the 88th page thereof of Entry No. 705799 (on December 20, [111]*1111929) is typical and representative of the manner in which all of the entries covered by the instant protest were entered on Customs Form 5171, and the manner of stamping the date of liquidation therein is typical and representative of the manner in which all of said Customs Forms 5171, upon which were entered the entries covered by the instant protest, were stamped to indicate the dates of liquidation; said book may be received in evidence and marked “Exhibit 2”;
9. On or about and under the date of March 26, 1937, the importer-plaintiff, through counsel, wrote to the Collector of Customs, at New York, N. Y., contending that the liquidation of said entries had not been posted properly, and requesting that they be posted, as per the accompanying copy of letter and schedule of entries, which copy of letter and schedule may be received in evidence and marked “Collective Exhibit No. 3”;
10. In reply to said letter dated March 26, 1937, the Collector of Customs, at New York, wrote, under date of May 8, 1937, denying the request to post, as per the accompanying letter, which may be received in evidence and marked “Exhibit No. 4”;
11. The instant protest was lodged on May 15, 1937, within sixty days after the reply of the Collector embodied in said letter dated May 8, 1937;
12. The accompanying duplicate copies of- entries 465240, 946865, 945439, 967621, 4404, 347954, and 427267, on Customs Form 3420, the originals of which were not forwarded with the protest to the Court by the Collector of Customs, may be received in evidence and marked “Collective Exhibit No. 5” for the purpose of showing the value of the merchandise and the amounts of duties determined by the liquidation of said entries;
It is further stipulated and agreed that the protest is submitted upon this stipulation with the accompanying exhibits, and Exhibit No. 1, heretofore filed and that, subject to the Court’s approval, the plaintiff may file a brief on or before January 23, 1939, and the defendant may file a reply on or before February 23, 1939.

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B. Dickson & Co. v. United States, 3 Cust. Ct. 109, 1939 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1766 (cusc 1939).

3 Cust. Ct. 109 (B. Dickson & Co. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.