Dover Shipping Co. v. United States

4 Cust. Ct. 135, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 33
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1940
DocketC. D. 306
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 4 Cust. Ct. 135 (Dover Shipping Co. 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
Dover Shipping Co. v. United States, 4 Cust. Ct. 135, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 33 (cusc 1940).

Opinion

Keefe, Judge:

The facts before us presented by the record are rather unusual and interesting. It appears that on May 3, 1932, during the time the Prohibition Amendment was in effect, a British merchant vessel was seized off the coast of New Jersey by officials of the United States Government and charged with illegally attempting to deliver a cargo of liquor to this country. The liquor was placed in the custody of the United States collector of customs on May 6, 1932, awaiting disposition of libel proceedings instituted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The libel proceedings were terminated on December 12, 1933, by a decree restoring the liquor in question to the claimant and directing that the merchandise be entered and that customs duties and internal revenue taxes be assessed thereupon. We are not concerned here with the libel proceedings, but in passing we might say that from the foregoing it is apparent that between the date of seizure and the termination of the libel proceedings the eighteenth amendment had been repealed and importations of liquor thereby legalized.

In accordance with the order of court the liquor was entered for warehouse on December 21, 1933. The entry papers disclose that entry was made for 128 kegs of fluid malt, 1,600 gallons. On January 10, 1934, the merchandise was gauged by the United States gaugers. The gauger’s return was based upon the capacity of the kegs and a fixed allowance was made for outage on each keg. The capacity of the one hundred kegs was found to be 1,365 gallons and the normal outage of 56% gallons was deducted, making 1,308% net gallons. The gauger also reported that the 28 kegs were empty and that the capacity thereof was 336 gallons. On November 21, 1934, the entry was liquidated on the basis of the original customs gauge in accordance with section 315 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Admittedly no allowance was made for the absence of liquor in the 28 empty kegs. Before the collector liquidated the entry, inquiry was made by his office as to the [137]*137meaning of the words “some slack” and “1 bbl. head out” appearing in a receipt given 3 days after seizure to the deputy surveyor by acting deputy collector. The inquiry appears as follows:

Referring to copy of receipt given by you, seizure #38462, May 6, 1932, please report whether your notation “Some Slack” indicates that there was some merchandise in each of the 128 kegs, and whether the notation “1 bbl. head out” is meant to report that the barrel contained no merchandise. Invoice No. 42306 herewith.

The answer thereto is as follows:

The notation “Some slack” on our receipt for Seizure #38462 means that some merchandise was in each of the 121 kegs. The notation “1 bbl. head out” means that the keg contained merchandise, but that the head of the keg had been smashed. Before gauging in the Seizure Room in December, 1933, the kegs were repacked into full ones and empties under the gauger’s supervision.

At the time of liquidation on November 21, 1934, no complaint or protest was made by the importer because of the assessment of duty upon the 28 empty kegs.

Due to the terms of the Canadian Trade Agreement granting importers a lower rate of duty upon liquor, the entry was reliquidated by the collector on April 27, 1938, but prior to that date the merchandise had been withdrawn from time to time from warehouse in the regular maimer. The claim is made by the importer that at the time of reliquidation there remained in warehouse only the 28 empty kegs and within the time prescribed by law the importers filed a protest against the reliquidation, claiming it to be illegal because it was based upon the contents of 128 full kegs of liquor when 28 kegs thereof were empty. The substance of the protest may be summed up in the language following:

On said reliquidation, the Dover Shipping Company, Ltd., is being charged with the amount of $2,434.68 for gallonage of malt fluid on said 28 empty kegs. The undersigned protests that error was committed by the Collector of Customs in fixing and claiming duty on merchandise which never existed, was never imported and which never entered the commerce of the United States, and requests that said error be corrected, and that the claim for duties be abated and cancelled, and that the undersigned be relieved of the payment thereof.

At the trial hereof the parties hereto entered into a stipulation of fact, the part thereof concerning the entry of the merchandise reads as follows:

3. Following the termination of said libel proceedings, entry was made of the merchandise involved, as directed by the order of the United States District Court.
4. The 128 Kegs of Malt Liquor were entered as follows:
100 -Kegs containing malt liquor
28 empty kegs.
5. The report of the United States Gauger, made at the time of entry, shows that 28 kegs were empty when gauged.
[138]*1386. It is stipulated that the record in United States of America, Libellant, v. 1,571 Bags and 128 Kegs containing Rye and Scotch Whiskey, Brandy and Malt Liquor ex British Oil Screw “WHICHONE” Official No. 157425 DOVER SHIPPING COMPANY, LTD., Claimant, may be incorporated herein, and that all of the papers in the present case may be considered as evidence herein.
7. Plaintiff requests 30 days from date hereof for brief, and defendant 30 days thereafter to reply.

At the hearing, and after the admission of the stipulation and all the papers in evidence, counsel for the Government moved to dismiss the protest as untimely. The motion was taken under advisement and permission given to counsel to present briefs thereupon. Later, to wit, on May 10, 1939, by agreement between the parties hereto, the case was restored to the docket and the entire case, including the motion, was submitted upon the record for all purposes.

The Government, in argument upon the motion to dismiss, contends that the importer’s right of protest expired 60 days after the liquidation of November 21, 1934, because it is directed to the quantity of merchandise left in bonded warehouse which was the subject of reliquidation, whereas the identical subject of quantity was passed upon by the collector in his original liquidation.

The plaintiff contends that a reliquidation opens up all errors and mistakes made by the collector on the original liquidation and a refusal to correct such errors and mistakes is subject to a timely protest. Therefore, if the collector refused to take notice of the fact that the 28 kegs purporting to contain liquor were empty and required that duty should be paid thereon, the amount of duty demanded is a question directly involved in such reliquidation and a timely protest as to the amount to be taken in duties may be legally filed.

Questions arising as to the timeliness of protests filed against the exactions of the collector upon goods withdrawn from warehouse have been the subject of many decisions by this, and our appellate court, and have varied in their holdings principally because of the facts pertinent to the particular cases. In view of the position taken by the Government herein, we do not think it necessary to review such decisions.

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Bluebook (online)
4 Cust. Ct. 135, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dover-shipping-co-v-united-states-cusc-1940.