Home Prods. Int'l, Inc. v. United States

2019 CIT 126
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedSeptember 27, 2019
DocketConsol. 07-00123
StatusPublished

This text of 2019 CIT 126 (Home Prods. Int'l, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of International Trade primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Home Prods. Int'l, Inc. v. United States, 2019 CIT 126 (cit 2019).

Opinion

Slip Op. 19-126 UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

HOME PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL, INC.,

Plaintiff, Before: Leo M. Gordon, Judge v. Consol. Court No. 07-00123 UNITED STATES,

Defendant.

OPINION and ORDER

[Affirmative injunction to enforce judgment issued.]

Dated: September 27, 2019

Frederick L. Ikenson, Blank Rome LLP of Washington, DC for Plaintiff Home Products International, Inc.

Michael D. Snyder, Trial Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice of Washington, DC for Defendant, United States. With him on the briefs were Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Jeanne E. Davidson, Director; and Claudia Burke, Assistant Director. Of counsel was Edward N. Maurer, Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel, Office of Assistant Chief Counsel, International Trade Litigation, U.S. Customs for Border Protection, of New York, NY; and Saad Y. Chalchal, Attorney, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance of Washington, DC.

William E. Perry, Harris & Moure, PLC of Washington, DC for Defendant-Intervenor Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.

Kristin H. Mowry, Jeffrey S. Grimson, Jill A. Cramer, Sarah M. Wyss, and Bryan P. Cenko, Mowry & Grimson of Washington, DC for Target Corp.

Gordon, Judge: This antidumping case was very long and very expensive.

Ten years of litigation concluded when the court entered a judgment pursuant to a

stipulation of settlement among Plaintiff Home Products International, Inc. (“Home

Products”), Defendant United States (“the Government”), and Defendant-Intervenor Consol. Court No. 07-00123 Page 2

Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (“Since Hardware”). See Judgment in Accordance

with Stipulated Settlement, ECF No. 168 (“Judgment”). Several months later

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“Customs”) incorrectly liquidated 224 subject

entries at a lower dumping rate (9.47 percent) than specified in the Judgment

(72.29 percent). See Def.’s Status Report, ECF No. 171. It was a big error, under-

collecting millions of dollars on the subject entries. The error was brought to the attention

of the Government shortly after the 90-day window expired for Customs to voluntarily

reliquidate the subject entries under 19 U.S.C. § 1501. With no other direct statutory

authorization to correct the error, the Government sought an order from the court directing

Customs to reliquidate those entries in accordance with the Judgment. Id. The court

issued a short order directing Customs to reliquidate the subject entries at the correct rate

in accordance with the Judgment. See Order for Reliquidation, ECF No. 172 (“Order”).

Almost immediately, Target Corporation (“Target”), the importer of record for 40 of the

subject entries, sought to contest the lawfulness of any reliquidation of their entries and

assert its rights in the finality of liquidation. See Target’s Mot. to Intervene, ECF No. 173;

Target’s Mot. for Reconsideration and to Vacate Court Order, ECF No. 177; see also

Home Products’ Resp. in Opp’n to Target’s Mot. to Intervene, ECF No. 180; Home

Products’ Resp. in Opp’n to Target’s Mot. for Reconsideration, ECF No. 185; Defendant’s

Resp. in Opp’n to Target’s Mot. to Intervene, ECF No. 183; Defendant’s Resp. in Opp’n

to Target’s Mot. for Reconsideration, ECF No. 186.

The court sua sponte stayed any reliquidation of the subject entries pursuant to

the Order, and repositioned the posture of the litigation as a motion to enforce the Consol. Court No. 07-00123 Page 3

Judgment by the Government and Plaintiff.1 See Order Issuing Stay Pending Disposition

of Target’s Motions, ECF No. 188; see also Home Products’ Summary Presentation of

Arguments, ECF No. 191; Target Corp.’s Summary Presentation of Arguments, ECF

No. 192; Defendant’s Summary Presentation of Arguments, ECF No. 193.

I. Discussion

The Customs Courts Act of 1980 (“1980 Act”), Pub. L. No. 96-417, 94 Stat. 1727

(1980) created “a comprehensive system for judicial review of civil actions arising out of

import transactions and federal statutes affecting international trade.” Statement of

President Carter, 16 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 2183 (Oct. 11, 1980); see also H.R.

Rep. No. 96-1235, at 18–20 (1980), as reprinted in 1980 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3727, 3729.

A significant part of this comprehensive new system was the explicit conferral on the

U.S. Court of International Trade of “all the powers in law and equity of, or as conferred

by statute upon, a district court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 1585 (1982).

In possessing remedial powers co-extensive with those of a federal district court,

this Court is authorized, with certain exceptions not relevant here, “to order any form of

relief that is appropriate in a civil action, including, but not limited to, declaratory

judgments, orders of remand, injunctions, and writs of mandamus and prohibition.”

28 U.S.C. § 2643(c). The 1980 Act “leaves no doubt that 28 U.S.C. § 2643(c)(1) ‘is a

general grant of authority for the Court of International Trade to order any form of relief

that it deems appropriate under the circumstances.’” United States v. Mizrahie, 9 CIT 142,

1 Defendant-Intervenor Since Hardware has not made filings or participated in any way in the proceedings to enforce the Judgment. Consol. Court No. 07-00123 Page 4

146, 606 F. Supp. 703, 707 (1985) (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 96-1235, at 61, as reprinted in

1980 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3772). As a consequence, Congress empowered the Court of

International Trade to adjudicate the rights of parties aggrieved by agency decision-

making in the customs and international trade law arena and afford them full and complete

relief. See H.R. Rep. No. 96-1235, at 20, 60–62, as reprinted in 1980 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3729,

3771–73.

To provide complete relief a court may, from time to time, be required to enforce

its judgments and issue additional declaratory and injunctive relief. See Riggs v. Johnson

County, 73 U.S. 166, 187 (1868) (Without the ability to enforce judgments, “the judicial

power would be incomplete and entirely inadequate to the purposes for which it was

conferred by the Constitution.”). A supplementary proceeding for a court to enforce a

judgment is “summary in nature; [it] cannot be used to take up matters beyond the

contours of the judgment and thereby short-circuit the usual adjudicative processes.”

Harvey v. Johanns, 494 F.3d 237, 244–45 (1st Cir. 2007) (citing Fafel v. Dipaola, 399 F.3d

403, 411 (1st Cir. 2005)). A court's power to enforce a judgment is therefore confined to

the four corners of the judgment itself. Id.; see also Peacock v. Thomas, 516 U.S. 349,

359 (1996).

A. Liquidation

Liquidation, “the final computation or ascertainment of duties on entries for

consumption,” is a fundamental concept in all U.S. import transactions. See 19 C.F.R.

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