Ellis K. Orlowitz Co. v. United States

200 F. Supp. 302, 47 Cust. Ct. 583, 1961 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 16
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 23, 1961
DocketA.R.D. 136
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 200 F. Supp. 302 (Ellis K. Orlowitz 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
Ellis K. Orlowitz Co. v. United States, 200 F. Supp. 302, 47 Cust. Ct. 583, 1961 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 16 (cusc 1961).

Opinions

DONLON, Judge.

Plaintiff below seeks here the reversal of a judgment entered by Judge Lawrence, in which he affirmed the appraiser’s return of values under the Anti-dumping Act of 1921, as amended. Ellis K. Orlowitz Co. v. United States, 43 Cust. Ct. 548, Reap.Dec. 9544. The antidump-ing order, under which the appraiser’s return was made, was issued by the Secretary of the Treasury on October 27, 1955, T.D. 53934. The order has to do with cast-iron soil pipe imported from the United Kingdom.

While proceedings antecedent to issuance of the order were pending, certain importers of cast-iron soil pipe from the United Kingdom brought an action in the Federal Court for the District of Columbia, in which they attacked the validity of the pending proceedings and of the proposed order and the duties thereunder, and prayed for a declaratory judgment and an injunction staying the proceedings, the order, and its enforcement. The Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Tariff Commission were defendants.

Because one of the reasons the plaintiffs in that action gave for seeking an injunction was the alleged repugnance of the Antidumping Act (19 U.S.C.A. § 160) to the Constitution, a three-judge district court was convened, pursuant to section 2282 of the Judicial Code. (28 U.S.C. § 2282).

Defendants argued that the action was improperly brought in the district court, inasmuch as it was a tariff litigation and Congress has conferred on the United States Customs Court exclusive trial jurisdiction in tariff litigation. The three-judge district court sustained this contention, denied ' the relief plaintiffs sought, and dismissed the petition. Horton et al. v. Humphrey et al., D.C., 146 F.Supp. 819. The United States Supreme Court, after hearing, affirmed the judgment below in a brief per curiam opinion. Idem, 352 U.S. 921, 77 S.Ct. 224, 1 L.Ed.2d 157. That decision was handed down December 3, 1956.

There was, therefore, no decision on the merits of the issues which plaintiffs raised in the Horton action relative to the cast-iron soil pipe antidumping order, some of which are the issues that have been raised here. The attorneys who represented the plaintiffs in the Horton litigation are also the attorneys for appellant-plaintiff here.

The present action was filed pursuant to section 210 of the Antidumping Act. (19 U.S.C.A. § 169.) This is the proper procedure to test the order of the Secretary of the Treasury, and is brought in the court which has cognizance of the matter.

The appraiser returned values for “dumping” duties on certain cast-iron soil pipe from the United Kingdom, entered at the port of Philadelphia on October 5, 1954. Under date of June 6, 1955, the Philadelphia appraiser gave notice to the Commissioner of Customs (with copy to the importer, appellant-plaintiff) that appraisement of this merchandise was withheld “pending investigation as to whether or not the said merchandise is being imported in violation of the Antidumping Act of 1921.” Section 201 (b) of the Antidumping Act authorizes the withholding of appraisement in such cases. (19 U.S.C.A. § 160(b).) Ap-praisement was made May 14, 1958, and plaintiff’s appeal to reappraisement was timely filed.

On trial below, it appeared that there is no controversy as to the appraiser’s finding of values under section 402 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1401a. The sole issue is as to “dumping” values, and more particularly as to whether the “dumping” order of October 27, 1955, supra, is valid.

[305]*305The basis of the claim that the order is not valid, as argued by appellant-plaintiff, is summarized in the brief filed with us in its behalf, as follows:

“1. The underlying determination by the United States Tariff Commission that 6 producers of cast-iron soil pipe in California constituted the injured industry did not satisfy the statutory requirement of a determination of injury to an ‘industry’, meaning the entire domestic cast-iron soil pipe industry.
“2. The Secretary’s finding did not recite the required ‘determination’ of said Commission but substituted his own incorrect version.” [Appellant’s brief, pp. 1, 2.]

Judge Lawrence, trial judge below, declined to rule on the first alleged ground of invalidity, holding that the Secretary’s determination of what Congress intended by the term “industry” is not a matter for judicial inquiry. As to the second ground of appeal, Judge Lawrence found that the Secretary’s recital of the determination of the Tariff Commission was an adequate recital.

Congress can, and often does, delegate to the President, or other executive officer or agency, authority to make findings in prescribed situations, and, on the basis of such findings, to promulgate orders. This is a permissible delegation of legislative authority to the executive branch of our Government. It is axiomatic that courts are not to review the discretion exercised by the President, or other executive officer or agency, in arriving at findings in such matters. Citation of authority is not necessary to support this well-recognized rule, requiring judicial noninterference in legislative authority constitutionally conferred by Congress on the executive.

It is equally well established that the executive has no legislative authority save only that which Congress has conferred on it. Therefore, it is to the courts that parties must have recourse whenever they deem that they have been injured by what they regard as executive abuse of legislative power, or legislative power exercised by the executive in excess of the terms of the congressional grant.

What is involved in such cases was stated in Kleberg & Co. (Inc.) v. United States, 71 F.2d 332 at page 335, 21 CC PA 110, at page 115: ,

“It is equally well established by the authorities that if the Secretary of the Treasury has proceeded in the method prescribed by the Congress, we may not judicially inquire into the correctness of his conclusions. The constitutionality of the law under which he proceeds having been once determined, then the judicial power extends only to a correction of his failure to proceed according to and within the law.” [Emphasis supplied.]

Like all general principles of law, this is a principle easier to state than to apply. It is in the application of the principle that courts encounter difficulty. While judges should refrain from reviewing executive discretion, they should be slow to deny to litigants the opportunity which our constitutional system affords for a judicial review of executive compliance with the terms laid down by the legislature, under which the delegated discretion is to be exercised.

There is a discernible distinction between the discretion, conferred on the executive by Congress, to find from duly presented facts that there is actual or threatened injury and the requirement, specified also by Congress, that the injury so found by the executive shall be injury to “an industry in the United States.” (Sec. 201(a), Anti-dumping Act, 1921, as amended; 19 U.S. C.A. § 160(a).) As to the finding of injury we do not inquire.

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Ellis K. Orlowitz Co. v. United States
200 F. Supp. 302 (U.S. Customs Court, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
200 F. Supp. 302, 47 Cust. Ct. 583, 1961 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellis-k-orlowitz-co-v-united-states-cusc-1961.