Compania Naviera Vascongada v. United States

354 F.2d 935, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 7454, 1966 A.M.C. 257
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 21, 1966
Docket22099_1
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 354 F.2d 935 (Compania Naviera Vascongada v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Compania Naviera Vascongada v. United States, 354 F.2d 935, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 7454, 1966 A.M.C. 257 (5th Cir. 1966).

Opinion

MARIS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents the question whether a vessel of foreign registry engaged in foreign trade which has previously arrived at the first United States port on its current voyage, is required, upon arrival at succeeding ports in the United States, to list in its manifest ship’s stores purchased duty and tax-free by its master at preceding United States ports. The facts out of which the question arises are these:

The Valentina Frias, a ship of Spanish registry, arrived at the port of New York in November 1960 from a foreign port and departed for a foreign port from the port of Mobile, Alabama, during the following month. Upon its arrival at New York all its cargo, stores and supplies were listed on its manifest, which was prepared in accordance with section 431(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1431(a). At that time a customs officer placed certain of the ship’s stores under seal. The vessel subsequently sailed from New York to Newport News, Virginia, then to Mobile, Alabama, and then to Galveston, Texas. Upon entry in each port, the master delivered the ship’s manifest to the customs authorities. At these domestic *937 ports the master purchased for the ship’s stores approximately 240,000 cigarettes and 100 cases of beer. These articles were purchased from United States customs and internal-revenue bonded warehouses exempt from duty and internal-revenue taxes pursuant to the provisions of section 309 of the Tariff Act, 19 U.S. C.A. § 1309, and they were also placed under seal by customs officers. The vessel then returned to Mobile. During this second stop at that port, a customs port investigator apprehended two seamen in possession of nine bottles of spirits. These men, who were from another vessel, informed the customs officer that they had purchased the liquor from the steward of the Valentina Frias. After receiving this information, customs officers inspected the vessel and inventoried the stores on board. This inventory disclosed that approximately 222,000 cigarettes and 87% cases of beer, which had been purchased for ship’s stores free of duty and tax from the bonded warehouses, and 19 bottles of wine were on board but were not listed as ship’s stores on the manifest which had been furnished to the customs authorities by the vessel’s master on its second stop at Mobile. Because of the failure of the manifest to list these ship’s stores, the Bureau of Customs administratively determined that section 584 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1584, had been violated and assessed a penalty in the amount of $2,722.16, the appraised value of the undeclared stores, which was paid by the master under protest. 1 The unlisted articles were seized by the customs officers and this libel for their forfeiture and condemnation was brought by the United States in the District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. In an answer the appellant denied that section 584 of the Act was applicable to the articles purchased during the coastwise trip of the vessel and in a cross-libel refund of the penalty was sought. The district court held that the Valentina Frias, as it proceeded from New York to other ports of call in this country, was a vessel “bound to the United States” within the meaning of section 584 of the Act and that its master was required to produce at each succeeding port a manifest accurately listing the ship’s stores then on board, including the cigarettes and beer purchased from the bonded warehouses. The district court accordingly entered a decree forfeiting the seized property to the use of the United States and dismissing the cross-libel. United States v. 87⅚ Cases Beer (King), D.C.Ala.1964, 233 F.Supp. 555. This appeal followed.

It will be observed that the stop of the Valentina Frias at Mobile with which we are here concerned was its fourth successive call at a United States port after its arrival from abroad at the port of New York. At this point in its voyage it was engaged in loading cargo for foreign ports. Whether upon making entry at the port of Mobile on this stop its master was required to produce a manifest which specified, inter alia, all the ship’s stores then actually on board, including those acquired at previous United States ports, the question presented upon this appeal, is to be determined from the provisions, not wholly harmonious, upon the subject which are contained in the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C.A. ch. 4, and the regulations adopted pursuant thereto.

The appellant argues that since section 431(a) of the Tariff Act requires a manifest only in the case of a vessel “arriving in the United States,” the manifest to which the statute and regulations refer is solely that which lists the merchandise and stores on board upon its arrival at *938 the first American port. It is only this manifest, says the appellant, which is referred to by section 584 of the Tariff Act which imposes penalties upon the master or owner of a vessel “bound to the United States” whose manifest does not include or describe all the merchandise and stores on board. Accordingly, runs the appellant’s argument, since the master produced at Mobile a manifest which accurately listed the ship’s stores which were on board when the vessel arrived at New York, its first American port, Section 584 was not violated even though the manifest did not list the ship’s stores then actually on board which had been acquired at American ports. We do not agree.

The appellant asks us to place too narrow a meaning upon the phrase “arriving in the United States” in section 431(a) and the cognate phrase “bound to the United States” in section 584. A vessel is arriving in the United States when it is entering a United States port from the high seas and it is bound to the United States when it is proceeding on the high seas to such a port, even though it may have last cleared from another American port rather than a foreign one. That Congress intended these phrases to have this broad a meaning is indicated by section 433 which refers to the “arrival * * * of a foreign vessel from a domestic port * * * at any port or place within the United States”, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1433. It is also demonstrated by the fact that Congress knew how to limit the scope of the phrase when it wished to do so. Thus in section 432 it referred to “any vessel arriving from a foreign port or place” and in section 446 to “Vessels arriving in the United States from foreign ports”, 19 U.S.C.A. §§ 1432 and 1446, respectively.

Moreover an examination of the law and the regulations as a whole makes clear the Congressional design that every foreign vessel, with exceptions not here material, should be inquired to have and produce to the customs authorities at each American port at which it calls a manifest listing, inter alia, the merchandise and stores which are on board. Tariff Act of 1930, §§ 435, 439, 443, 444, 583, 19 U.S.C.A. §§ 1435, 1439, 1443, 1444, 1583.

In the case of a vessel arriving from abroad the manifest is described by the regulations as an “inward foreign manifest”. 19 CFR § 4.7. If a foreign vessel which has arrived at an American port is to deliver some of its foreign cargo at other American ports a certified copy of the inward foreign manifest, showing the portion of the cargo entered at that port and the portion remaining on board, is returned to the master and is known as the “traveling manifest”.

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Bluebook (online)
354 F.2d 935, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 7454, 1966 A.M.C. 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/compania-naviera-vascongada-v-united-states-ca5-1966.