Mobilite, Inc. v. United States

70 Cust. Ct. 359, 358 F. Supp. 267, 1973 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3454
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedApril 27, 1973
DocketC.R.D. 73-11; Court No. 72-3-00707
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 70 Cust. Ct. 359 (Mobilite, 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
Mobilite, Inc. v. United States, 70 Cust. Ct. 359, 358 F. Supp. 267, 1973 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3454 (cusc 1973).

Opinion

Newman, Judge:

These cross-motions present two questions of novel impression concerning provisions of the Customs Courts Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-271), in addition to matters of substantive law.

This action — which is before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment1 and defendant’s cross-motion for dismissal2 — involves the dutiable status of certain filament and luminescent light bulbs packed together with lamps and imported from Japan. The bulbs and lamps were assessed with duty as entireties at the rate of 19 per centum ad valorem under the provision in item 653.39 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS), as modified by T.D. 68-9, for “other” illuminating articles.

Plaintiff claims that the lamps and bulbs should have been liquidated separately - the lamps at the rate of 19 per centum ad valorem under item 653.39, TSUS (the rate assessed); and the bulbs under the eo nomine provisions therefor at the rates of 5.5 per centum or 6 per centum ad valorem in items 686.90 and 687.30, TSUS, as modified, respectively. As is apparent, the dispute relates essentially to the proper rate of duty applicable to the bulbs rather than to the lamps.

[360]*360Statutes Involved

Classified:

Schedule 6, Part 3, Subpart F:

Item Articles Kates of Duty
Illuminating articles and parts thereof, of base metal:
* * # * # iji #
653.39 Other- 19% ad val.
Claimed:
Schedule 6, Part 3, Subpart F:
653.39 supra, and —
Schedule 6, Part 5:
Electric filament lamps and * * * electric
luminescent lamps * * *:
Filament lamps:
‡ *
686.90 Designed for operating at 100
volts or more_ 5.5% ad val.
and —
687.30 Electric luminescent lamps_ 6% ad val.
JURISDICTION

Defendant’s cross-motion to dismiss raises a threshold jurisdictional question. In its protest filed with the regional commissioner at the port of New York pursuant to 19 U.S.C. §1514 (1970), plaintiff challenged the assessment of duty under item 653.39, TSUS, and claimed that the merchandise was properly dutiable under item 686.80 or item 688.40, TSUS. Thus, at the administrative level no claim was made that the bulbs were separately dutiable from the lamps. Such claim was advanced by plaintiff for the first time in its complaint filed in this action.

In support of its motion, the Government contends that as neither the protest nor summons challenged the appraisement of the lamps and bulbs as entireties, plaintiff now is precluded from contesting their classification as entireties because a favorable ruling on the latter issue would, of necessity, disturb the appraisement. Defendant relies on Wilshire Industries, Inc. v. United States, 64 Cust. Ct. 84, C.D. 3963 (1970), and 19 U.S.C. § 1514 (1970).

In Wilshire Industries, this court held that it could not grant the [361]*361plaintiff any effective relief pursuant to its entireties claim, made for the first time at the trial, where to do so in effect would have enlarged the scope of the protest to include merchandise not originally covered.

Here, defendant argues that if plaintiff prevails, in effect the court will be permitting an enlargement of the scope of the protest to include an additional administrative action (viz. appraisement) as the subject thereof, which action was not contested in the original protest ; and that under section 1514 plaintiff was required to protest the administrative value determinations and state the claimed separate values as a prerequisite to an adjudication of the entireties issue in a civil action.

In the present case, the regional commissioner classified and appraised the lamps and bulbs as entireties, and plaintiff’s new claim applies to those same items. Consequently, Wilshire Industries is not apposite to the issue presented here, viz: whether the court may consider plaintiff’s new claim that the bulbs are separately dutiable from the lamps where plaintiff did not challenge the administrative decisions to classify and appraise the merchandise as entireties. This issue raises a question of first impression and involves the construction of 19 U.S.C. § 1514(a) (1970)3 and 28 U.S.C. § 2632(d) (2) (1970)4 Cf. A. N. Deringer, Inc. v. United States, 70 Cust. Ct. 337, C.R.D. 73-4 (1973). See infra.

[362]*362The purpose and effect of section 2632(d) are explained in the House and Senate Reports on the bill (S. 2624) which became the Customs Courts Act of 1970, P.L. 91-271:5

Section 2632(d) retains the present authority of the court to provide by rule for consideration of any new ground in support of an action before the court if: (1) it applies to the same merchandise that was the subject of the protest; and (2) it is related to the same “administrative decision” contested in the protest.
The term “administrative decision” in section 2632 (d)(2) refers to those “decisions” listed in section 514 of the Tariff Act,” [sic] section 207 of the bill, infra. Section 514(a), as amended, lists seven categories in which the decision may fall. A similar reference is made to “administrative decision” in section 1582(a) relating to the jurisdiction of the Customs Court, section 110 of the bill, supra. The requirement that the new ground raised in the Customs Court be related to the same administrative decision contested in the protest merely means that the new ground must fall within the same category as the decision contested in the protest.
This requirement in section 2632(d) (2) is in accord with prevailing decisions of the Customs Court, [citations omitted]
iji i}s jf: ❖ # ❖
Section 2632(d) does not change these principles. It retains them in the statute by requiring that any amendment be related to the same administrative decision contested in the protest. For example, if the administrative protest is limited to an attack on “the classification and rate and amount of duties chargeable,” (Section 514(a)(2)), plaintiff would not be able to amend its papers in the Customs Court so as to contest in that Court “the appraised value of the merchandise” (Section 514(a)(1)), an administrative decision which had not been contested in the protest. That reflects the rule under existing law.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Cust. Ct. 359, 358 F. Supp. 267, 1973 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mobilite-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1973.