Gal v. United States

11 Cust. Ct. 453, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3762
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1943
DocketNo. 5948; Entry No. 835955, etc.
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Cust. Ct. 453 (Gal 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
Gal v. United States, 11 Cust. Ct. 453, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3762 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Tilson, Judge:

The 7 appeals listed in schedule A, hereto attached and made a part hereof, involve the proper dutiable value of 13 different kinds of aluminum foil exported from Germany and entered at the port of Now York between May 5, 1936, and November 7, 1936. The merchandise was appraised on the basis of foreign value-. The plaintiff claims that there is no foreign value for the merchandise and that it should be appraised on the basis of export value.

The claim of the plaintiff that there was no foreign value for this merchandise is based upon the contention that no such or similar merchandise was sold or freely offered for sale to all purchasers in the ordinary course of trade in the principal market for home consumption in Germany.

There is evidence before me which is sufficient to show that the aluminum foil which was sold in Germany for home consumption during the period covered by these appeals was not such as or similar to the aluminum foil here in question and this is sufficient upon which to base a finding that there was no foreign value for the imported merchandise. But there is undisputed evidence in the record before me to the effect that the home market in Germany for all aluminum foil was restricted. I quote from plaintiffs’ exhibit 5:

That the condition imposed upon the manufacturers of aluminum foils to the effect that they may sell aluminum foils only under the condition that the purchasers tli%mselves use the merchandise and do not resell same, is contained in item 2 of the attached printed “Delivery Conditions” which item reads as follows:
2. Customers are forbidden to resell the foils.

[454]*454Upon each of the invoices covering aluminum foil for sale in Germany appeared the following:

This foil is delivered to you only for your own consumption and may not be resold.

It further appears that anyone who violated the edict against resale of aluminum foil was penalized by being excluded from further deliveries of aluminum foil. ' ,

It also appears from plaintiff’s exhibit 9 that during the period covered by these appeals the German “cartels had lists of individuals, partnerships, corporations, and other concerns to whom the members of these cartels could only sell aluminum foil and aluminum metal covered paper-to, for home consumption in Germany”; that “the members of these cartels were prohibited from selling to individuals, partnerships, corporations, or other concerns, who were not on the lists,” and that these lists “did not include all of the possible purchasers of these commodities.” “ * * * these cartels penalized their ■members for violation of any of the restrictions * * * by assessing a penalty or fine of 1 reichsmark per kilogram of the merchandise so sold without restriction, for each violation.”

Based upon the evidence in this case, and following the decisions of our appellate court in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. United States, 11 Ct. Cust. Appls. 351, and Cottman v. United States, 20 C. C. P. A. 344, I find and hold that no foreign value existed for the involved aluminum foil during the dates of exportation thereof.

Although the importations herein occurred prior to the enactment of the Customs Administrative Act of 1938, sales and offers for sale of such or similar merchandise to countries other than the United States cannot be considered in an effort to find foreign value for the reason that affiant in plaintiff’s exhibit 4 states that no such offers or sales existed during the export period here involved.

I come now to the question of whether or not the plaintiff has established an export value for the instant aluminum foil. During the export period here involved Nicholas Gal, the plaintiff herein, had with the exporter an exclusive representation agreement for the sale of all the exporter’s products throughout the entire United States. According to the terms of this agreement the exporter agreed to make all sales in the United States through its agent, Nicholas Gal, and to turn over for the attention of Nicholas Gal any business which .may possibly result from inquiries from export circles.

According to the record every sale of the exporter’s merchandise in the United States had to pass through the hands of NicHblas Gal. On the other hand Nicholas Gal offered for sale and sold said merchandise to any person in the United States who wished to buy the same. There was no restriction as to who could buy, and no restrictions as to what they did with the merchandise after they had pur[455]*455chased the same. All offers for sale and all sales were free offers for sale and free sales. All orders for the merchandise taken by Nicholas Gal had to be forwarded to the exporter for acceptance or rejection. After such orders had been acted upon by the exporter Nicholas Gal was notified of the action taken, and he in turn notified the party placing the order of the action taken by the exporter. Nicholas Gal had no authority to accept or reject the order for the merchandise. In this connection Nicholas Gal testified as follows:

* * *. Of course, I made first a survey to find out who is using that type of foil which we are manufacturing, and then I offered the foil either by personal calls, or letters, or telephone, any way I found it possible to do, and I offered it according to the price of the price list which I had on hand; and then the price was either accepted or not. If it was not, then I tried to get another price for it' which I thought would be acceptable. Through many negotiations the business either materialized or did not materialize. When it materialized, I received an order which was, of course, understood that it was subject to acceptance by the factory. So, the usual practice was that I cabled over that such an order was received and when it was accepted and the cable came in indicating acceptance or refusal, according to that I considered the deal closed or not closed. That was in great part the way it was done. Then the merchandise was, of course, delivered. When it arrived here I gave instructions to Globe Shipping Co., who was my customs broker, where to deliver it. It was invoiced and then payment made, and that was the end of the transaction.

During the export period involved Nicholas Gal had no interest in the merchandise, other than that of sales representative of the exporter, and for his services as such sales agent he was to receive a commission of 6 per centum. The exporter was responsible for the credit of the party to whom it sold the aluminum foil. In several instances the customer became insolvent and refused to pay, and in such cases the exporter assumed all financial responsibility, and in case of financial loss this was borne by the exporter.

The relationship between the exporter herein and Nicholas Gal was clearly that of principal and agent. Under a somewhat similar situation in the case of United States v. Gerlach, Reap. Dec. 5443, the appellate division of this court observed:

* * *. Before making a sale, the agent always cabled the manufacturer for current prices, and, after the order wa^ forwarded to the manufacturer, an acknowledgment directed to the customer was sent to the agent for transmission to the customer and the sale was then complete. Under such circumstances, the sales by the agent must be considered as sales by the •principal.

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Related

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. United States
11 Ct. Cust. 351 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1922)
First Nat. Bank v. Linn Co. Bank
47 P. 614 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1897)
International Building & Loan Ass'n v. Watson
64 N.E. 23 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1902)
Nicklisson v. Holman
17 Kan. 22 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1876)

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Bluebook (online)
11 Cust. Ct. 453, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gal-v-united-states-cusc-1943.