Malhame & Co. v. United States

23 Cust. Ct. 290, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1201
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1949
DocketNo. 7750; Entry No. 954286, etc.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 23 Cust. Ct. 290 (Malhame & Co. 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
Malhame & Co. v. United States, 23 Cust. Ct. 290, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1201 (cusc 1949).

Opinion

Lawbence, Judge:

The appeals for reappraisement listed in schedule “A,” hereto attached and made a part hereof, involve the proper dutiable value of certain prayer books imported from Antwerp, Belgium. The • appeals have been abandoned as to the cloth-bound prayer books. Consequently, we are concerned only with the leather-bound books.

In some of these appeals the merchandise was entered at certain unit values which were advanced by the appraiser, but in the majority of the appeals the merchandise was entered under duress to meet advances made by the appraiser in similar cases then pending on appeal. The merchandise was appraised on the basis of United States value as entireties, and in some of the appeals the appraiser also indicated separate values for the bindings and for the printed pages.

When the appeals were called for hearing, counsel for the plaintiffs stated—

I offer to stipulate that there is no foreign or export value as those terms are defined in Section 402 (c) and (d) for the leather bound prayer books at bar.
Mb. Atjsteb: I will agree to that, your Honor.
* ijt * # * * sj*
Mb. Cabteb : I also offer to stipulate that the leather bindings are never sold or offered for sale separately from the text in the United States, or the text ever sold or offered for sale separately from the bindings in the United States.
Mb. Atjsteb: We agree to that, with the understanding however, that in the United States during the entire time of the importations involved, these identical books were being freely offered for sale in accordance with the definition of United States value as entireties at the appraised values thereof in each instance.
Mb. Cabteb: I agree to that.

At the outset I am faced with the question of whether or not there was any United States value for the books in question, and consequently whether or not there is any basis for the contention that the United States values found by the appraiser, either as entireties or as separate entities, are presumptively correct. If so, the plaintiffs had the burden of offering evidence to overcome that presumption. In this connection it should be stated that the provisions of paragraph 1410 of the Tariff Act of 1930 are identical with the provisions of paragraph 1310 of the Tariff Act of 1922. In United States v. John Wanamaker, 20 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 381, T. D. 46185, in dealing with the provisions of paragraph 1310 of the Tariff Act of 1922, our appellate court stated:

[292]*292The Government in argument has pointed out that the judgment of the court below, sustaining the protest as to the sheets or pages and ordering the collector of customs to reliquidate the entries accordingly, may require a reliquidation upon an invalid appraisement. Since the appraisement was made on the books as entireties it is at once apparent that such appraisement is invalid and void, and it follows that the court’s finding, that the collector’s classification of the bindings and assessment of duty thereon at 25 per centum “must stand,” was erroneous. [Italics supplied.]

As to the leather-bound books here in issue which were appraised as entireties, I consider the Wanamalcer decision, supra, controlling. By virtue of said decision, these appraisements would seem to be invalid and void. It accordingly is clear that the presumption of correctness can not attach to them. By the same token neither can there be' any United States value for the books where the bindings and texts were appraised separately, for the reason that it has been agreed between counsel that the leather bindings are never sold or offered for sale separately from the texts in the United States, nor are the texts ever sold or offered for sale separately from the bindings in the United States. There is, therefore, no United States value for the involved books, whether appraised as entireties or whether the texts and bindings are appraised as separate entities.

It has been suggested by counsel for the defendant that since the Wanamalcer case, supra, was a classification case, it has no controlling effect in a reappraisement'or value case, such as this case. It appears that our appellate court considered the Wanamalcer case as controlling-in a value case, for in United States v. Malhame & Co. and Malhame & Co. v. United States, 24 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 448, T. D. 48911, in dealing with the same question here involved and with identical merchandise, it held as follows:

With respect to the finding of value of the leather-bound books it appears that, following our decision in the case of United States v. Wanamaker, supra, the lower tribunals held that the texts and bindings should, under the provisions of paragraph 1410 of the Tariff Act of 1930, be separately appraised; that there was no foreign, export, or United States value for the leather bindings or the pages of the text in the imported condition, and therefore these should be appraised upon the basis of the cost of production of binding and text, considered separately.
The Government assigns error upon the point of separate appraisal of binding and text, and also with respect to the court’s findings as to cost of production.
We will first consider the question of whether there is any substantial evidence in the record of the cost of production of the leather-bound books. The only evidence upon this point consists of the affidavit introduced in evidence as Exhibit 22, which, omitting certain schedules therein contained, reads as follows:
H; * * * Hi * *
The only matter contained in the omitted schedules which bears upon the cost of production is the percentage cost of text and percentage cost of binding, without any further itemization of the same.
* * * # * * *
[293]*293It will be observed that there is nothing in said affidavit separately showing items (1), (2), (3), and (4) of said section 402 (f).
In the case of Snow v. United States, 24 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 319, T. D. 48767, we affirmed a judgment of the Customs Court based upon its decision that, in order to comply with said section, each of the items (1), (2), (3), and (4) must be separately shown, and that, unless so shown, the importer’s appeal to reappraisement may properly be dismissed.
Therefore, without repeating here our discussion in that case, we will say only that our decision therein is controlling here, and the appellate division in the case at bar erred in holding that the cost of production of the leather-bound books had been established by the importer, because there is no substantial evidence in the record tending to establish, in the manner provided by law, such cost of production.

At the trial herein, counsel for the plaintiffs offered and there was received in evidence as exhibit 1, an affidavit executed by one Adrianus Cornelius Josephus Proost, which, omitting the jurat and the schedule attached, is as follows:

I am a co-director of Henri Proost & Co.

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Related

United States v. Malhame
26 Cust. Ct. 558 (U.S. Customs Court, 1951)

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Bluebook (online)
23 Cust. Ct. 290, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/malhame-co-v-united-states-cusc-1949.