Goggi Bros. v. United States

8 Cust. Ct. 380, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 68
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 8, 1942
DocketC. D. 643
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 Cust. Ct. 380 (Goggi Bros. 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
Goggi Bros. v. United States, 8 Cust. Ct. 380, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 68 (cusc 1942).

Opinion

Keefe, Judge:

This case involves the assessment of duties upon certain barrels of wine placed in a customs bonded warehouse on February 27, 1934. The entry gauge thereof was determined as 944 gallons and the warehouse entry was liquidated by the collector on April 24, 1934, upon the basis of such gauge. On January 26, 1939, application was made by the importer, and granted, for permission to abandon the wine to the Government under the provisions of section 563 (b), act of 1930. After such abandonment and issuance by the Government to the warehouse of the delivery receipt for the same, the collector ordered a regauge and it was found that the 18 barrels contained only 691/i gallons, a shortage from the entered gauge of 252J4 gallons.

[381]*381The collector demanded payment of duty upon the basis of the liquidated gauge, making no allowance for normal evaporation during the warehouse period, and allowing only for the wine actually destroyed. In other words a demand was made for the payment of duty on 252% gallons of wine at $1.25 per gallon under paragraph 804, which was neither found in the barrels at the time of regauge after abandonment, nor withdrawn from the casks during the warehouse period. The importer claims that the duty determined upon liquidation, because of the abandonment, should be remitted or refunded.

At the trial the importer and the warehouseman testified that the barrels in question were frequently inspected, the last inspection being shortly before abandonment, and no indication was found of leakage of the wine, nor damage to the barrels prior to the time the same had been released to the Government and a “clean-order” delivery receipt, bearing no notations and exceptions, was delivered by the Government to the warehouse. The customs official who regauged the barrels testified for the Government that they were stored in two tiers; that an employee of the warehouse removed the barrels from the top tier, one barrel at a time, and rolled the same less than 50 feet to a position where there was sufficient light and space to open and make a regauge; that when he observed the barrels on the tiers they were apparently in good condition but he noticed some wet sawdust on the floor indicating to him that some of the containers were leaking; that during the time the barrels were being rolled into position for gauging they suffered material damage to the staves and a stream of wine flowed from each barrel as it was rolled along the floor; that the principal damage occurred when the tools were applied to open the bung, the barrels spraying quite freely from the open seams; that in removing the bungs the hoops were loosened; and that the gauging of each barrél took only a few minutes after it had left its original position on the tier. In the opinion of the gauger less than a gallon of wine from each barrel was lost from the gauging operations. This witness also testified that the normal outage for wine in storage during the period of warehousing of the barrels in question would amount to 10 or 11 gallons per barrel. The gauger also admitted that the barrels when in the tiers did not show any indication of leakage; that it was dark in that part of the warehouse and difficult to see clearly and that he did not pay particular attention.

That portion of section 563 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the Customs Administrative Act of 1938, making provision for abandonment of merchandise in warehouse, is, as follows:

(b) Abandonment. — Under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe and subject to any conditions imposed thereby the consignee may at any time within three years from the date of original importation, abandon to the Government any merchandise in bonded warehouse, whereupon any duties on [382]*382such merchandise may be remitted or refunded as the case may be, but any merchandise so abandoned shall not be less than an entire package and shall be abandoned in the original package without having been repacked while in a bonded warehouse (other than a bonded manipulating warehouse).

The Customs Regulations of 1937, as amended in T. D. 49658, provide in respect to abandonment, so far as pertinent hereto as follows:

Art. 808. Abandonment or destruction of merchandise in bond. — (a) Applications for the abandonment or destruction of merchandise in bond must be made in writing to the collector by the consignee or his duly qualified representative, and shall be stamped with the date of receipt in the customhouse. When an application is for permission to destroy, the proposed method of destruction must be stated and approved by the collector. Applications to abandon or destroy merchandise in warehouse must be concurred in by the warehouse proprietor.
* ‡ * * * * *
(c) When, in the opinion of the collector, the abandonment of merchandise under section 563 (b), Tariff Act of 1930, will involve any expense or cost to the Government, or the merchandise is worthless or unsalable, or cannot be sold for a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of sale, the applicant may elect to destroy such merchandise under customs supervision, pursuant to the provisions of section 557, and should be so informed. If the applicant does not so elect, he should be required to advance a sum which, in the opinion of the collector, will be sufficient to save the Government harmless from any expense or cost resulting from such abandonment. The sum so advanced will be placed in special deposit account and expended to cover the cost of destruction or to meet any deficit should the merchandise be sold and the proceeds of sale be less than the expenses of such sale. After meeting such expenses or deficit, any balance remaining will be refunded to the applicant.
(d) Where the above conditions are met, collectors of customs may grant applications without reference to the Bureau of Customs. In any case where doubt exists the case should be referred to the bureau for instructions.
Art. 809. Disposition of abandoned merchandise and proceeds of sale. — Sale of abandoned merchandise will be made in accordance with the provisions of chapter XVIII so far as applicable. No part of the proceeds shall be returned to the importer. After paying, first, the expenses of sale, and, second, carriers’ liens for freight, charges, or contribution in general average, the net proceeds, if any, shall be deposited under “Miscellaneous Receipts from Customs.” If the abandoned merchandise or any -part thereof is entirely worthless, or if the expenses of sale probably would exceed the proceeds, the merchandise shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the collector may direct, but no abandonment claim relating to such merchandise shall be certified by a customs officer who has not satisfied himself as to the quantity of the abandoned portion of the shipment and that the entire quantity of the goods covered by the collector’s instructions as to disposition has been actually destroyed or removed from the control of the claimant so that there is no possibility of its being made the subject of another claim. [Italics not quoted.]

The importer contends that duty is not assessable upon any portion of the merchandise because the wine in the original casks had been abandoned to the Government, and, alternatively, that inasmuch as wine is subject to a normal evaporation of 10 gallons per barrel during the period of the warehousing herein, an allowance should have been [383]

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Bluebook (online)
8 Cust. Ct. 380, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goggi-bros-v-united-states-cusc-1942.