Kurt Orban Co. v. United States

42 Cust. Ct. 379
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Kurt Orban Co. v. United States. Read the opinion of the Court — 42 Cust. Ct. 644
United States Customs Court·Decided May 14, 1959·No. No. 63064; petitions 6932-R, etc. (Jacksonville)·Published

Opinion

Ford, Judge:

The petitions listed in schedule “A,” hereto attached and made a part hereof, were filed under the provisions of section 489 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and seek remission of additional duties assessed pursuant to undervaluation on entry of certain imported steel products at the port of Jacksonville, Fla.

The merchandise covered by the petitions before the court, except petition 7157-R, consists of deformed steel concrete reinforcing bars, exported from Germany and entered between November 26, 1951, and November 29, 1951, at the invoice value of $123.40 per thousand kilos. These bars were appraised at $135 per thousand kilos, plus a deforming extra of $2 per thousand kilos, less 10 per centum, plus size extra of $1.60 per thousand kilos, less 10 per centum, net packed. The resultant advance on all of these entries was 12 per centum. In entry J-279, covered by petition 6933-R, the merchandise was entered at $122 per thousand kilos and was appraised at $135 per thousand kilos, plus a deforming extra of $2 per thousand kilos, less 10 per centum. There was no addition for “size extra,” so that the resultant advance of the merchandise covered by this entry is also 12 per centum.

[380]*380Petition 7157-R covered steel sheets, exported from Germany on April 25, 1951, and entered on May 7, 1051, at $142 per thousand kilos. The merchandise was appraised at $142 per thousand kilograms, net packed, plus extras as follows:

Less 10 per centum discount on extras only

The resultant advance for merchandise covered by this petition is 3 per centum.

At the time of hearing, the three i>etitions involved herein were consolidated for the purpose of trial. In addition, the record in Jno. (G. McGiffin et al. v. United States, 38 Cust. Ct. 438, Abstract 60574, and the record in Kurt Orban Co., Inc. v. United States, 39 Cust. Ct. 248, C.D. 1936, were incorporated herein. It was then stipulated by and between counsel for the respective parties that if witnesses Richter, Sullivan, and Orban, who testified for the plaintiffs in Abstract 60574, supra, were called in this proceeding by the petitioners each of them would testify that entry of the merchandise at a lesser value than that returned on final appraisement was without intention to defraud the revenue of the United States, or to conceal or misrepresent the facts of the case, or to deceive the appraiser as to the value of the merchandise. Counsel for the defendant then moved to dismiss the petitions on the ground that petitioners have failed to make out a prima facie case. Said motion is hereby denied.

Upon this record, the case was submitted for decision.

The issue in the McGiffin case, supra, was raised by the filing of protests against the collector’s liquidations on the ground that the appraisements were invalid. It was contended that the invalidity of the appraisements was due to the failure of the appraiser to comply with section 14.4(d) of the Oustoms Regulations of 1943, as amended. The court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss the protests. The record made in this case is particularly pertinent to the petitions presently under consideration, since the same entries covered by the petitions were covered by the protests therein involved, except entry J-669, covered by petition 7157-R.

The record in the McGiffin case, supra,

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Related

McGiffin v. United States
38 Cust. Ct. 438 (U.S. Customs Court, 1957)
Kurt Orban Co. v. United States
39 Cust. Ct. 248 (U.S. Customs Court, 1957)