Forman v. Peaslee

9 F. Cas. 452, 21 Law Rep. 273
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Hampshire
DecidedMay 15, 1857
DocketCase No. 4,941
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 9 F. Cas. 452 (Forman v. Peaslee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forman v. Peaslee, 9 F. Cas. 452, 21 Law Rep. 273 (circtdnh 1857).

Opinion

CURTIS, Circuit Justice.

This is an action against the collector of the port of Boston and Charlestown, to recover back moneys paid under protest for duties on an importation of railroad iron, manufactured by the plaintiff in England, and exported by him to this country, to be sold here on his account. It appears that the plaintiff made a contract with Train & Co., who had a line of packet ships plying between Liverpool and Boston, to transport this iron from Wales, where it was manufactured, to Boston, at a freight of twenty-two shillings and sixpence per ton. Train & Co. employed' coasting vessels to take it on board at the ports of Newport and Cardiff, in Wales, and bring it to Liverpool, where it was laden on board their packet ships and brought to Boston. In appraising the iron, the appraisers fixed its market value at -the time of its departure from Liverpool. The plaintiff insisted it should be at the time of his departure from Newport and Cardiff; and protest[453]*453ed for this cause against the payment of the duties exacted by the collector. The act of March 3, 1851, § 1 (9 Stat. 029), requires the appraisers to ascertain the market value of the import, “at the period of the exportation to the United States.” The natural meaning of the words “period of exportation,” is termination of exportation. The period of exportation is that point of time when the act of exportation is complete. . The subject matter of the statute is the appraisal of goods exported from a foreign country and imported into the United States. So that the inquiry in this case is, at what point of time was the act of exportation of this merchandise from the foreign country, England, complete? My opinion is, when it left Liverpool. Its transportation coastwise from one English port to another was not an exportation from England. Until the vessels of Train & Co. having it on board were cleared and sailed from Liverpool, there was no completed act of exportation. Until that time the property was under the control of the British government, whose order could have arrested and detained it within that country, and whose control over it would have been unaffected by the fact that it had been brought from Cardiff and Newport for the purpose of being sent to the United States.

The plaintiff’s counsel relied on the case of Barrett v. Stockton & B. Ry. Co., reported in 2 Man. & G. 134, and on error in 3 Man. & G. 956, and 11 Clark & F. 590. But that case tends to support the construction which I place on the act of congress. It is true it was decided in all the courts that under the act of parliament then in question, exportation might mean simply carrying out of a port; and as between the public and a corporation claiming a toll, and upon the special provisions of that act, it was held it did moan so. But it was admitted that its more usual sense was a more restricted sense, and covered only cases where property was not merely sent out of one port to another of the same kingdom, but carried to a foreign country. And that such is the meaning of the word “exportation” in this act of congress can admit of no doubt, for it can have no reference to transportation from one port to another of the same country; its language and its object and its subject matter all confine the exportation here spoken of to an exportation from some foreign country to tlie United States.

But it is further argued that the merchandise left Wales for the United States, and under a bill of lading which showed that it was to come hither. The bill of lading, if it can be considered as but one, which I doubt, and the intent, of the party in sending the property from Wales, cannot make the act of exportation from Great Britain complete on leaving Wales, when it was not so in fact.

It is further insisted that this case is like Gant v. Peaslee [supra]. But this is not so. Goods, the produce of Turkey, were exported from that country to the United States. On their way hither they were carried to England, and without being landed were transshipped. I held they were not imported into the United States from England. Their going to England and being transshipped there affected only the route and means of their transit after the act of exportation from Turkey had been completed. But here the fact that this merchandise went to Liverpool and was there transshipped, affected the mode and time of transit out of Great Britain, and prevented that from being complete until the merchandise left Liverpool.

The next objection is that the collector added to the charges six shillings sterling per ton for the cost of transporting the property from Wales to Liverpool. I am of opinion this was illegal. There was no such charge in fact The plaintiff agreed with Train & Co. on a certain rate of freight from Wales to the United States. It does not appear that he paid any more freight because Train & Co., instead of sending their ships to Newport and Cardiff, chose to bring the iron in other vessels to Liverpool. It appears that the market price of railroad iron is always quoted, and was so taken by these appraisers, at so much per ton “free on board in Wales.” So that from the nature of the trade no charges which precede the shipment are to be added to the market price. They are included in that price, and are borne by the seller. That marine freight, whether an import be brought direct from the country of exportation or via other ports and places, is not a dutiable charge, has been repeatedly held. Gant v. Peaslee [supra]; Millar v. Millar [Case No. 9,546].

The next objection involves a question of much importance, and which is attended with no little difficulty. It is, whether these goods, having been procured otherwise than by purchase, were rightly appraised by pursuing the course marked out by the 17th section of the tariff act of 1842 (5 Stat. 504), as amended by the act of March 3, 1S51 (9 Stat. 629), or whether it was necessary to conform to the act of March 1, 1823 (3 Stat. 729). This question affects — First, the point ¡ of time at which the value should be ascertained; second, the persons by whom the appraisement should be made; third, the consequence of the appraisement as respects the additional duty by way of penalty.

As to the first of these, it is insisted by the plaintiff, that as these goods were procured otherwise than by purchase, their actual value at the time and place when procured, and not their market value at the period of their exportation, should have been ascertained, pursuant to the fifth section' of the act of 1823 (3 Stat. 732). Independent of the first section of the act of March 3, 1851 [454]*454(9 Stat 629), this position would probably have been held to be correct But the language of that section is, “in all cases in which there is or shall be imposed any ad valorem rate of duty, &e., it shall be the duty of the collector, &c., to cause the actual market value or wholesale price thereof at the period of the exportation to the United States, in the principal markets of the country from which the same shall have been imported into the United States, to be appraised, estimated, and ascertained.” This language is broad enough to cover cases of imports procured otherwise than by purchase. It expressly embraces all cases of imports subject to an ad valorem rate of duty. And when it is added that this law is known to have been passed to change certain rules decided by the supreme court in Greely v. Thompson, 10 How. [51 U.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Westway Trading Corp. v. United States
633 F.2d 1388 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1980)
Westway Trading Corp. v. United States
83 Cust. Ct. 101 (U.S. Customs Court, 1979)
Salamy v. United States
42 Cust. Ct. 204 (U.S. Customs Court, 1959)
Marak Sales Co. v. United States
39 Cust. Ct. 491 (U.S. Customs Court, 1957)
D. N. & E. Walter & Co. v. United States
42 C.C.P.A. 114 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1955)
Murphy v. United States
33 Cust. Ct. 400 (U.S. Customs Court, 1954)
Simon v. United States
33 Cust. Ct. 370 (U.S. Customs Court, 1954)
Avakian Bros. v. United States
41 C.C.P.A. 80 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1953)
Avakian Bros. v. United States
29 Cust. Ct. 107 (U.S. Customs Court, 1952)
Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co. v. United States
1 Ct. Cust. 290 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 F. Cas. 452, 21 Law Rep. 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forman-v-peaslee-circtdnh-1857.