Champion Coated Paper Co. v. United States

24 C.C.P.A. 83, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 159
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 17, 1936
DocketNo. 3885
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 24 C.C.P.A. 83 (Champion Coated Paper Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Champion Coated Paper Co. v. United States, 24 C.C.P.A. 83, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 159 (ccpa 1936).

Opinion

Graham, Presiding Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of tbe court:

Casein bad been imported by tbe appellant and tbe duty tbereon paid. On various dates between December 21, 1927, and February [84]*8421, 1930, twenty drawback entries were filed by appellant under tbe Tariff Act of 1922, with the Deputy Collector of Customs at Cincinnati, to recover 99 per centum of the duty paid on parts of this casein which bad been manufactured. These entries were duly liquidated by the collector at Cleveland, and the money paid to the appellant.

In 1930, the Special Agency Service of the Treasury Department, at the instance of the Secretary of the Treasury, reinvestigated certain drawback rates. This investigation required about a year and a half. Following this, the collector at Cleveland was instructed by the Commissioner of Customs to determine the amount due from the appellant as a refund of the drawback and claimed by the collector to have been illegally paid. On February 5, 1932, the collector demanded from the appellant a repayment of $12,129.83, as a refund of drawback.

On July 29, 1933, again acting in pursuance of directions from the Commissioner of Customs, the collector reliquidated the drawback entries and on August 4, 1933, demanded a refund of drawback, as before, from appellant. The appellant made no refund in either instance.

An examination of the drawback entries herein involved shows that the Comptroller of Customs at Philadelphia verified the original liquidation of the entries on May 9, 1928, as appears by his stamp upon the entries. The first purported reliquidation of the entries by the collector was made, as stamped thereon, on February 5, 1932. This reliquidation does not appear to have been verified by the comptroller. The entries bear the mark “Re-Reliquidated July 29 1933 U. S. Custom House Cleveland, Ohio.” The entries also bear the stamp “Comptroller of Customs Re-Verified July 19 1933 Philadelphia, Pa.”

Section 523 of the Tariff Act of 1922 is, in part, as follows:

Sec. 523. * * * Comptrollers of Customs shall verify all assessments of duties and allowances of drawbacks made by collectors in connection with the liquidation thereof. In cases of disagreement between a collector and a comptroller of customs, the latter shall report the facts to the Secretary of the Treasury for instructions. * * *

Inasmuch as the purported reliquidation of February 5, 1932, does not seem to have been verified by the comptroller, we must assume that the first reliquidation was not complete and that the later action of July 29, 1933, was thought necessary in order to comply with all legal requirements and to complete a valid reliquidation.

On August 9, 1933, the appellant filed its protest against the “so-called re-reliquidations” of July 29, 1933. The protest, omitting the list of entries, dates of filing, and dates of liquidation, is as follows:

We respectfully protest against your so-called re-reliquidations (July 29, 1933} of the following drawback entries: * * *
[85]*85We further protest against your decision of August 4, 1933, demanding 112,129.83 as a refund of drawback paid to the undersigned and covered by the entries set forth in the above schedule.
We claim that your original liquidations, by virtue of the statute of limitations contained in Section 514, Tariff Act of 1922, in the absence of any protest, became final and conclusive upon all parties.
We further claim that, pursuant to the provisions of Section 521, Tariff Act of 1922, you are, in the absence of any protest having been filed against the original liquidations, precluded from reliquidating the entry for any cause, except fraud, after the expiration of one year from the date of such entry and that, if you believe there is fraud, you may not reliquidate an entry after the expiration of two years from the date of the entry. More than two years having elapsed since the date of the entries herein, your so-called re-reliquidations are null and void ab initio.
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We further claim that your decision de’manding $12,129.83, having been predicated upon void liquidations, is likewise null and void.
We further claim that the original liquidations were correct, legal and valid in all respects and that they have, by operation of the statute of limitations, become final and conclusive.
We further claim that there having been no reliquidations, there can be no so-called re-reliquidations.

The collector’s report, also omitting the list of entries and other immaterial portions, was as follows:

This protest is made against the re-reliquidation of the drawback entries listed above and the demand for repayment of the drawback illegally claimed on casein. The entries were reliquidated February 5, 1932, in accordance with instructions from the Commissioner of Customs in a letter dated February 1, 1932. On further instructions from the Commissioner in a letter dated July 11, 1933, the entries were re-reliquidated July 29, 1933. Demand had been made for the repayment of the amount found due but has not been paid.

On the trial before the United States Customs Court but one witness was called and examined, and his testimony was on matters not material here. On the trial, Government counsel conceded that no fraud was claimed in this proceeding. The appellant’s counsel contended that the so-called reliquidation of February 5, 1932, and re-reliquidation of July 29, 1933, were without authority of law and contended that, under the provisions of section 521 of the Tariff Act of 1922, any reliquidation of these drawback entries was barred by the limitation of one year claimed to be fixed by said section, no fraud having been charged.

The Government argued in the trial court, and here that said section 521 does not apply to drawback entries, but only to consumption entries. Government counsel also contended that, under the provisions of section 514 of said tariff act, the appellant must refund the money received from the collector on the drawback entries before it could protest, and, not having done so, the protest should be dismissed. A motion to that effect was made by Government counsel. [86]*86As to this claim, appellant’s counsel took the position that the language of said section 514 requiring a payment before protest did not apply to drawback entries, but only to consumption entries.

A further motion was made by Government counsel to dismiss the protest on the ground that the burden rested upon the appellant to prove that the collector’s decisions on reliquidation and re-reliquidation were improperly made; in other words, to prove that the imported goods were used in the manufacture of goods to be exported, and that it had failed to prove the same.

The two motions of the Government were taken under advisement.

In the argument before the trial court, another element entered the case, for we find, from a portion of the argument of appellant’s counsel, quoted in the decision of the court, that counsel was arguing that under said section 514, the court had jurisdiction to adjudicate not only the so-called re-reliquidations, but the decision of the collector ordering the same, as well.

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Bluebook (online)
24 C.C.P.A. 83, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/champion-coated-paper-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1936.