M. M. Scher & Sons, Inc. v. United States

24 Cust. Ct. 243, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1476
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 9, 1950
DocketC. D. 1241
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 24 Cust. Ct. 243 (M. M. Scher & Sons, Inc. 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
M. M. Scher & Sons, Inc. v. United States, 24 Cust. Ct. 243, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1476 (cusc 1950).

Opinion

Ekwall, Judge:

This protest is directed against a claimed “exaction” in the sum of $30 demanded by the collector of customs at Baltimore, Md., and paid by the plaintiff on two consumption entries of imported merchandise. Said sum does not represent duties levied against imported merchandise, but is the sum arrived at by the Secretary of the Treasury in mitigation of the penalty fixed by law under the provisions of section 592 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. § 1592). The facts as they appear from the record are that the two importations involved were entered at the values set forth on the invoices. Subsequently, voluntary amendments were made to the entered values by the importer, the plaintiff herein, in which the values were increased to meet increased export values. Due to what the collector considered false statements on the invoices, the collector assessed penalties of $1,494 in the case of entry 776 and of $3,289 as to entry 718. From the assessment of these penalties the importer, on March 26, 1946, filed with the Commissioner of Customs a petition for remission under the provisions of section 618 of said tariff act (19 U. S. C. § 1618). This petition was acted upon on June 24, 1946, and the penalty in respect to each entry was mitigated to $15, making a total of $30, the sum here involved.

Petitioner thereafter filed further petitions, and finally, on October 18, 1946, the Commissioner of Customs notified the importer that [244]*244unless the mitigated penalties were paid within 30 days the case would be referred to the United States attorney for the institution of proceedings looking to the collection of the entire forfeiture value of the importations.

On October 29, 1946, the importer filed protest under the alleged authority of section 514 of said tariff act (19 U. S. C. § 1514) in which it claims that the demand for the payment of the $30 is an exaction over which this court has jurisdiction under said section.

The provisions of the statute involved are as follows:

SEC. 592. SAME — PENALTY AGAINST GOODS.

If any consignor, seller, owner, importer, consignee, agent, or other person or persons enters or introduces, or attempts to enter or introduce, into the commerce of the United States any imported merchandise by means of any fraudulent or false invoice, declaration, affidavit, letter, paper, or by means of any false statement, written or verbal, or by means of any false or fraudulent practice or appliance whatsoever, or makes any false statement in any declaration under the provisions of section 485 of this Act (relating to declaration on entry) without reasonable cause to believe the truth of such statement, or aids or procures the making of any such false statement as to any matter material thereto without reasonable cause to believe the truth of such statement, or is guilty of any willful act or omission by means whereof the United States is or may be deprived of the lawful duties or any portion thereof accruing upon the merchandise or any portion thereof, embraced or referred to in such invoice, declaration, affidavit, letter, paper, or statement, or affected by such act or omission, such merchandise, or the value thereof, to be recovered from such person or persons, shall be subject to forfeiture, which forfeiture shall only apply to the whole of the merchandise or the value thereof in the case or package containing the particular article or articles of merchandise to which such fraud or false paper or statement relates. The arrival within the territorial limits of the United States of any merchandise consigned for sale and remaining the property of the shipper or consignor, and the acceptance of a false or fraudulent invoice thereof by the consignee or the agent of the consignor, or the existence of any other facts constituting an at-temped fraud, shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be an attempt to enter such merchandise notwithstanding no actual entry has been made or offered.

SEC. 618. REMISSION OR MITIGATION OF PENALTIES.

Whenever any person interested in any vessel, vehicle, merchandise, or baggage seized under the provisions of this Act, or who has incurred, or is alleged to have incurred, any fine or penalty thereunder, files with the Secretary of the Treasury if under the customs laws, and with the Secretary of Commerce if under the navigation laws, before the sale of such vessel, vehicle, merchandise, or baggage a petition for the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary of Commerce, if he finds that such fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without willful negligence or without any intention on the part of the petitioner to defraud the revenue or to violate the law, or finds the existence of such mitigating circumstances as to justify the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, may remit or mitigate the same upon such terms and conditions as he deems reasonable and just, or order discontinuance of any prosecution relating thereto. In order to enable him to ascertain the facts, the Secretary of the Treasury may issue a commission to any customs agent, collector, judge of the United States Customs Court, or [245]*245United States commissioner, to take testimony upon such petition: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive any person of an award of compensation made before the filing of such petition.

SEC. 514. PROTEST AGAINST COLLECTOR’S DECISIONS.

Except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 516 of this Act (relating to protests by American manufacturers, producers, and wholesalers), all decisions of the collector, including the legality of all orders and findings entering into the same, as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable, and as to all exactions of whatever character (within the jurisdiction, of the Secretary of the Treasury), and his decisions excluding any merchandise from entry or delivery, under any provision of the customs laws, and his liquidation or reliquidation of any entry, or refusal to pay any claim for drawback, or his refusal to reliquidate any entry for a clerical error discovered within one year after the date of entry, or within sixty days after liquidation or reliquidation when such liquidation or reliquidation is made more than ten months after the date of entry, shall, upon the expiration of sixty days after the date of such liquidation, reliquidation, decision, or refusal, be final and conclusive upon all persons (including the United States and any officer thereof), unless the importer, consignee, or agent of the person paying such charge or exaction, or filing such claim for drawback, or seeking such entry or delivery, shall, within sixty days after, but not before such liquidation, reliquidation, decision, or refusal, as the case may be, as well in cases of merchandise entered in bond as for consumption, file a protest in writing with the collector setting forth distinctly and specifically, and in respect to each entry, payment, claim, decision, or refusal, the reasons for the objection thereto. The reliquidation of an entry shall not open such entry so that a protest may be filed against the decision of the collector upon any question not involved in such reliquidation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 Cust. Ct. 243, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/m-m-scher-sons-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1950.