BP Oil Supply Co. v. United States

2011 CIT 116
United States Court of International Trade·Decided September 16, 2011·No. 04-00321·Published

Opinion

Slip Op. 11-116

UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

:

BP OIL SUPPLY COMPANY, :

:

Plaintiff, :

:

v. : Before: R. Kenton Musgrave, Senior Judge : Court No. 04-00321 UNITED STATES, :

:

Defendant. :

____________________________________:

OPINION

[Denying cross-motions for summary judgment on claims for “substitution unused merchandise drawback” of certain customs duties, taxes and fees paid on importations of crude petroleum.]

Decided: September 16, 2011 Galvin & Mlawski (John Joseph Galvin), for the plaintiff.

Tony West, Assistant Attorney General; Barbara S. Williams, Attorney-In-Charge, International Trade Field Office, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice (Marcella Powell), Office of the Assistant Chief Counsel, International Trade Litigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Beth Brotman), of counsel, for the defendant.

Musgrave, Senior Judge: As previously observed, see slip opinion 10-92, 34 CIT ___ (Aug. 13, 2010), the parties since joinder have pursued settlement negotiations that have proven unfortunately elusive. They now seek resolution via cross-motions for summary judgment. Based upon the papers, affidavits and exhibits submitted, both motions must be denied.

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Background

This action contests denial of customs protest1 numbers 5301-03-100333 and 5301-04-100162. These cover 27 claims for “substitution unused merchandise drawback” seeking refunds of up to 99 percent of the duties, taxes and fees paid on the imported merchandise alleged therein. See 19 U.S.C. § 1313(j)(2). Such claims require establishing that (1) the substitute merchandise (for export) is commercially interchangeable with the imported merchandise, (2) the substitute merchandise is either exported or destroyed under supervision, and (3) before such exportation or destruction (i) the substitute merchandise was not used within the United States and (ii) was in the possession of the party claiming drawback. Id. The substitute merchandise in this instance is Alaska North Slope (“ANS”), an American Petroleum Institute (“API” ) class III crude petroleum, and the imported merchandise consists of various foreign API class III crudes entered between 1994 and 1996. The drawback entry claims were filed between 1998 and 1999.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“Customs”) Headquarters Ruling (“HQ”)

230098 effectively denied both protests after concluding BP Oil Supply Company (“BP”), as claimant, had failed to establish that the imported crudes were commercially interchangeable with ANS, i.e., BP had provided neither evidence that a reasonable hypothetical competitor of the exported ANS would purchase crude oil based on the “API gravity”2 alone, nor evidence supporting the values of the exported ANS crudes or the physical/chemical characteristics of the imported

1 See 19 U.S.C. § 1515.

2 Apparently uncontested is that “API gravity” forms an arbitrary scale calibrated in terms of degrees mathematically related to specific gravity, that it expresses the gravity or density of liquid petroleum products, that it is usually determined by hydrometer, and that reliance upon it determines which of the four API classes describes particular crudes. See Pl.’s Mot. for Summ J. at 8.

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crudes, or evidence of their commercial descriptions in contracts and purchase orders. BP timely initiated suit here, see 28 U.S.C. 2636(a), invoking jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1581(a) and seeking, according to the complaint, “reliquidation of the entries at bar for drawback of any duty, tax, or fee imposed under Federal law upon entry or importation, including Column I duties, Merchandise Processing fees, Harbor Maintenance tax and Environmental tax, together with interest thereon as provided by law[.]” Complaint at 6.

Standard of Review

Denial of a protest is reviewed de novo. See, e.g., California Indus. Products, Inc.

v. United States, 28 CIT 1652, 350 F. Supp. 2d 1135 (2004). In such review, the decision of Customs is presumed correct, “[t]he burden of proving otherwise shall rest upon the party challenging such decision[,]” 28 U.S.C. § 2639(a)(1), and the court’s role is to reach the correct result. Jarvis Clark Co. v. United States, 733 F.2d 873, 878 (Fed. Cir. 1984). See, e.g., Precision Specialty Metals, Inc. v. United States, 24 CIT 1016, 116 F. Supp. 2d 1350 (2000).

On a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56, if “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law[,]” then the motion should be granted. USCIT R. 56(c). Once the movant “set[s] out facts that would be admissible in evidence” by way of “a separate, short and concise statement, in numbered paragraphs, of the material facts as to which the moving party contends there is no genuine issue to be tried” that is “followed by citation to evidence which would be admissible[,]” USCIT R. 56(e), (h)(1) & (h)(4), then pursuant to Rule 56(e)(2), the opposing party is likewise obliged to “set

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out specific facts showing a genuine issue for trial[,]” together with, as necessary, a “short and concise statement of additional material facts as to which it is contended that there exists a genuine issue to be tried” pursuant to this Court’s Rule 56(h)(2). In other words, if the movant satisfies its Rule 56 burden of production under USCIT R. 56(h)4), the burden shifts to the opponent to persuade that a genuine dispute over material facts exists, or else summary judgment is appropriate. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986). In such consideration, reasonable inferences are to be construed in favor of the motion’s opponent. See, e.g., Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587-88 (1986).

Discussion

I

At the outset, the government argues the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over drawback claims involving Qua Iboe, Gullfaks, Guafitas, or Zaire crude imports because the protests “specifically reference” none of these and may not now be amended.3 See Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss and Cross Mot. for Summ. J. (“Def’s Mot. Br.”) at 5-8. The implicit assumption is that drawback protests must describe the import merchandise with exacting terminology or trade names. The argument is wide of the mark, as it is based upon a stricter standard of specificity than is required under law for purposes of a jurisdictional inquiry.

3 See 19 U.S.C. § 1514(c)(1) (protestant required to “set forth distinctly and specifically . . .

each category of merchandise affected by” Customs’ denial of a drawback claim); see also 19 C.F.R. § 174.13 (a protest shall contain, inter alia, a “specific description of the merchandise affected by the decision as to which protest is made” and the “nature of[ ] and justification for the objection set forth distinctly and specifically with respect to each category, payment, claim, decision or refusal”); 19 C.F.R. §174.14 (amendment of protests); 19 C.F.R. §174.12(e) (period for filing or amending).

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The protests themselves each contain an attachment incorporating respective lists of specific drawback entry claim numbers. The attachments frame BP’s objection as being with respect to Customs’s decision “denying § 1313(j)(2) substitution unused merchandise drawback of any duty, tax, or fee assessed upon the designated imported API Class III crude oil the subject of the above- referenced entries upon the exportation of Alaskan North Slope API Class III crude oil.” E.g., Protest No. 5301-03-100333, attachment at 1 (italics added). See Court File. Jurisdiction lies over whatever crudes are encompassed by the import entries that are encompassed by the drawback entries that are the intended objects of BP’s stated protests – and that are known by whatever name traded in the industry.

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