Castle & Cooke, Inc. v. United States

64 Cust. Ct. 628, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3213
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJanuary 27, 1970
DocketR.D. 11693; Entry No. 103767
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 64 Cust. Ct. 628 (Castle & Cooke, Inc. 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
Castle & Cooke, Inc. v. United States, 64 Cust. Ct. 628, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3213 (cusc 1970).

Opinion

Nao, Chief Judge:

The merchandise involved in this appeal for re-appraisement consists of two Broadbent automatic sugar centrifugal units and fitments, exported from England to Hawaii on or about September 15, 1967. It was entered at the port of Honolulu at the invoice price of £15,803 ($44,071) and was appraised at £16,870 plus carriage, cases and labor, as shown on the special customs invoice.

The merchandise is on the final list promulgated by the Secretary of the Treasury (93 Treas. Dec. 14, T.D. 54521) and was appraised on the basis of export value, as that value is defined in section 402a(d) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the Customs Simplification Act of 1956. It is presumed, therefore, that the merchandise was freely offered for sale to all purchasers for exportation to the United States in the usual wholesale quantities and in the ordinary course of trade at the appraised value. United States v. Fischer Scientific Co., 44 CCPA 122, C.A.D. 648 (1957). Plaintiffs do not challenge the basis of appraisement but claim that the appraised value includes a 10 percent commission or discount which is not dutiable.

It appears from a “Notice of Action” sent to the importer by Import Specialist Yoichi Tamura (exhibit 1), that a 10 percent “commission” was included as dutiable in the appraisement. Since this is the only item challenged, the plaintiffs may rely upon the presumption of correctness attaching to the other elements of value and need establish only that the 10 percent “commission” is not properly a part of dutiable value. United States v. Knit Wits (Wiley) et al., 62 Cust. Ct. 1008, A.R.D. 251, 296 F. Supp. 949 (1969), and cases cited.

To meet their burden of proof, plaintiffs introduced an affidavit of Arthur J. Hallitt, director of Thomas Broadbent & Sons Limited, manufacturer of the merchandise (exhibit 2). According to the affidavit, Mr. Hallitt has been with the company for 20 years, during most of which time he has been in charge of the Sugar Sales Division. In that capacity his principal responsibility is the sale of sugar [630]*630centrifugal equipment produced by bis firm to all parts of the world. Pie stated that he has personal knowledge of the selling practice of the company and prices of said equipment for sale for home consumption, for exportation to the United States, and to third countries, because he supervises the quotations submitted to potential customers. The affidavit states further:

That the Automatic Sugar Centrifugal equipment such as my firm sold to Castle and Cooke in 1967 has been offered at all times to anyone who cared to buy either for use in the United Kingdom or for exportation to the United States or to third countries. * * *
That the ex works sale price of any particular type of sugar centrifugal to any customer in the World is the same at any particular period and this ex works sales price would not vary because of the number of sugar centrifugals purchased. Included in our ex works sale prices is a 10 percent commission that my company pays to our agents in those areas where my company has an agent. However, in those areas where the company has no agent, this 10% is offered to our customers as a discount from the ex works sale price as there would be no point of having our customers pay for the service of an agent that is not being provided to the customers.
That my company has no agent or agents in the United Kingdom for the sale of sugar centrifugals as all home sales are dealt with direct by the Head Office here in Huddersfield. For this reason a 10% discount off of the ex works sale prices are [sic] always allowed for sales for home consumption.
That similarly my company has no agents for the sale of sugar centrifugals in the United States. Therefore when offering sugar centrifugal equipment for exportation to the United States, we offer our customers, as we offered Castle & Cooke on their said purchase in 1967, the same 10% discount. However, unlike sales for home consumption, mv company then adds the inland charges to port of shipment on sales for exportation to the United States as all such sales for exportation are on an F.O.B. basis.

Testimony concerning the instant importation was given by Clifton Albert Dalen, manager of purchasing of Castle & Cooke, Inc. He stated that when his firm, whose business included factoring for sugar plantations, received a request from the manager of Kohala Sugar Co. for the purchase of the two Broadbent machines involved herein, it contacted Broadbent, obtained a proposal, and later issued an order, together with shipping instructions. A copy of the proposal was received in evidence as exhibit 3. It contains the following:

Our quotation is submitted inclusive of the 10% discount we are allowing in Hawaii to avoid misunderstanding of the actual price. As we have no agency commitments in Hawaii at present, [631]*631we are able to pass the advantage on to the customer. Our price is calculated as follows

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Related

Rattancraft of California v. United States
69 Cust. Ct. 262 (U.S. Customs Court, 1972)
United States v. Barr Shipping Co.
68 Cust. Ct. 332 (U.S. Customs Court, 1972)
Castle & Cooke, Inc. v. United States
67 Cust. Ct. 536 (U.S. Customs Court, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 Cust. Ct. 628, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castle-cooke-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1970.