Mexican-American Hat Co. ex rel. Koeller-Struss Co. v. United States

9 Cust. Ct. 681, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1394
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 9, 1942
DocketNo. 5756; Entry No. 1995, etc.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 9 Cust. Ct. 681 (Mexican-American Hat Co. ex rel. Koeller-Struss 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
Mexican-American Hat Co. ex rel. Koeller-Struss Co. v. United States, 9 Cust. Ct. 681, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1394 (cusc 1942).

Opinion

Walker, Judge:

These appeals to reappraisement, 45 in numbei, listed in schedule A, attached to and made a part hereof, involve the dutiable -value of Mexican harvest hats exported from Mexico to the United States during the period from May 1936, to August 1939. In each case the importer made advances on entry, following the procedure set forth in section 503 (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, because of advances made by the appraiser in a similar case then pending on appeal to reappraisement. The test case was. subsequently finally decided, the decision being reported in International Harvest Hat Co. v. United States, 5 Cust. Ct. 592, Reap. Dec. 5045.

When the cases at bar were called for trial, counsel for the plaintiffs established by appropriate testimony that the hats here in issue were the same as those involved in International Harvest Hat Co. v. United States, supra (hereinafter referred to as the International case), and that the market conditions and method of purchase of such hats were the same during the time covered by the dates of, exportation of [682]*682■the merchandise involved in the instant appeals as they were at the time of exportation of the merchandise involved in the International ■case. Motion was thereupon made by counsel for the plaintiffs to incorporate the record in the International case as part of the record herein, and the motion was granted over the objection of counsel for the defendant. .

The record shows that there was no objection on the part of Government counsel to the incorporation of the record for the purpose of showing the method of sale in Mexico, the objection being directed to the admission of the record for the purpose of establishing values. It may be pointed out, in passing, that the values found in the test •case would only control for the period of time covered by that case.

Plaintiffs offered in evidence in the case at bar two affidavits, together with accompanying papers, one made by Jose A. Castillo, who therein states that hi's business for the past 8 years had been that of a commissionaire engaged in buying Mexican hats for export on a commission and exporting the same to the United States, and the other made by Juan Sainz de Rozas, a member of the firm of Suers, de Guillermo S. Trapaga, dealers in Mexican hats in Tehuacan, Mexico, who stated that his business for the past 10 years had been the purchase and sale of Mexican hats at wholesale in Tehuacan, both for domestic consumption and4 for exportation to the United States. Both of these affidavits were sworn to before the American Vice Consul at Mexico, D. F., Mexico, and, in general, both are couched in identical language.

Upon the offer of the affidavits Government counsel made objection to their competency, materiality, and relevancy, and reserved the right to file further objections at the time of filing its brief in this case. No further objections were made. It appears from the official papers that Castillo was the exporter of record in 35 of.the appeals .herein, and that the Trapaga firm was the exporter of record in 4 others. The affidavits purport to relate to the shipments in question, and were made by men apparently competent to relate the details therein recited, and on their face tend to establish 'values other than the appraised values for the merchandise in issue. The objections made at the trial were therefore overruléd, and the affidavits were admitted in evidence, being marked exhibits 1 and 2, respectively.

The method of doing business in Mexico with regard to hats such as those in issue is set forth in these affidavits as follows:

* * * there are persons known as collectors who travel through the mountains and interior with a train of donkeys, who gather hats either direct from the weavers or from retail stores located in the interior who take such hats in trade. These collectors thereafter bring the said hats to Tehuacan, which is the principal market in Mexico for such hats, where the collectors sell them for the best price they can get.

[683]*683It appears that at Tehuacan there are a number of dealers, a Government-sponsored co-operative, and certain persons who act as buying agents or commissionaires for concerns such as the plaintiffs, all of whom purchase hats from the collectors. In the incorporated case it appeared that the appraised values were based, not upon the prices which the collectors' received from the aforementioned' dealers, cooperative, or buying agents, but upon the price which the dealers charged their customers in reselling the hats. It also appeared that the dealers perform certain services in connection with the hats, such as sorting and grading; that in purchasing hats from the dealers the purchaser bought only the kinds, qualities, and sizes of hats he desired, and that in certain cases sales were made by the dealers on credit, the accounts being carried open on the hooks of the dealer for periods up to 9 months. As to the sales by the collectors, it appears that all of the hats on the donkey's back, or in the entire donkey train, were generally sold at one time, and that when the purchaser was a buying agent he shipped the entire collection regardless of kind, quality, or size,- save that he threw away holey or worthless hats and packed the remainder according to size in bales.

In the International case it was 'finally held that inasmuch as the dealer’s price represented the price for merchandise of a higher quality and grade than the merchandise involved, and moreover in many cases involved credit transactions, it did not represent the value of hats such as or similar to the hats in question. It was further held that export value, as that value is defined in section 402 (d) of the Tariff Act of 1-930, was the proper basis of value for the hats in question, and the court apparently found that such export values for the hats involved were the prices shown in certain quotations attached to affidavits of Mr. Castillo, which he stated represented

the prevailing-wholhsate market'prices for Mexican hats'for export in the usual wholesale quantities as of the date stated on this quotation.

The quotations were addressed to the International Harvest Hat Co., the plaintiff in the incorporated case, and, it appeared, represented the prices at which hats of the different types were sold by collectors during the preceding week.

The affidavits, exhibits 1 and 2, in the case at bar are more elaborate than those offered in the International case, and each contains the following paragraph:

On each day. of the year a number of different collectors will consúmate sales, and since' all buyers and collectors do not have the same skill at bargaining there is bound to be a slight variation during the course of the day, and from day to day in the selling price of each kind of hat. However, the collectors usually keep themselves informed as to the prevailing prices for each kind of hat so that it is possible to know the general price of the hats and the trend of the market. I always keep myself informed as to the market conditions and send weekly [684]*684quotations to the Mexican American [or International Hat Co.] advising them of the prices at which the different types of hats are being sold at the time, so that they will be informed of the general prices and trend of the market. The prices stated in my weekly quotations to the Mexican American Hat Co.

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Bluebook (online)
9 Cust. Ct. 681, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mexican-american-hat-co-ex-rel-koeller-struss-co-v-united-states-cusc-1942.