Montgomery Ward & Co. v. United States

26 Cust. Ct. 642, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 721
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedApril 19, 1951
DocketNo. 7984; Entry Nos. 1780; 386; 227
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 26 Cust. Ct. 642 (Montgomery Ward & 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
Montgomery Ward & Co. v. United States, 26 Cust. Ct. 642, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 721 (cusc 1951).

Opinion

Mollison, Judge:

These are applications for review filed by plaintiff below to review the decision of Cline, J., in Reap. Dec. 7637 reported in Montgomery Ward & Co. v. United States, 21 Cust. Ct. 347. The trial judge sustained the appraised values. The applications for review involve three appeals for reappraisement covering three importations of Mexican silverware and jewelry imported at Chicago and Denver. The goods were manufactured and exported by Spratling y Artesanos, S. A., Taxco, Mexico. Two invoices representing the Chicago importations were dated July 20 and November 15, 1943, and were entered July 31 and November 22, 1943, respectively, at Chicago, and the third invoice, dated January 15, 1946, was entered February 4, 1946, at Denver. The merchandise involved in the Chicago importations was exported from Mexico on July 21, 1943, and November 17, 1943, and the Denver importation on January 17, 1946.

The silverware imported at the port of Chicago was entered at the invoice unit prices, which represented the list prices thereof, less 25 per cent discount, plus Mexican stamp tax, packed, and was appraised [643]*643at invoice unit (or list) prices, plus tax, packed. The silverware imported at the port of Denver was entered at the invoice unit price, which represented the list price, less 25 per cent discount, plus Mexican stamp tax, plus packing, and was appraised at the list price, plus tax, plus packing. There is no dispute as to the items of tax or packing. The silverware was appraised on the basis of foreign value,1 as stated by the attorney for the defendant and as found by the trial judge, and there is no contest in respect to the proper statutory basis to be applied, the record showing that both parties agree that the foreign value and the export value were the same. The importer claims that, the correct dutiable values are the list prices less 25 per centum.

There is no real dispute about most of the facts of this case. Sprat-ling y Artesanos, S. A., manufactured many different articles of silverware and jewelry of distinctive styling, design, and quality. The firm freely offered and sold merchandise such as and similar to that-involved in this case to wholesale buyers, dealers, department stores, and mail-order houses at a wholesale price which was the list or retail price less 25 per cent discount, which latter price, i. e., at 25 per cent discount, was allowed only to bona fide dealers, department stores, mail-order houses, and those who bought the merchandise for resale. Spratling y Artesanos, S. A., also sold at retail to tourists or consumers, who purchased the merchandise for their own personal use or consumption at the list prices. The firm conducted a retail business at a retail store in the town of Taxco, but the factory was located 2 or 3 miles outside the town of Taxco, and the wholesale business was conducted at the factory.

The proof of the plaintiff and the defendant establishes that the Spratling firm freely offered and sold to all purchasers for home consumption in Mexico at the retail or list prices without any restrictions as to resale or use. It was likewise proved by the evidence of both parties that the merchandise was freely offered and sold for home consumption and for exportation to the United States to all purchasers who bought for resale, i. e., dealers, at the wholesale price of 25 per cent discount from the retail or list prices. Spratling products were not offered for sale directly to consumers in the United States (defendant’s exhibit 4, p. 6). Prices, discounts, and conditions of sale were the same for home consumption as for exportation to the United States (defendant’s exhibit 4, p. 6).

[644]*644The retail quantities in which the silverware was sold by Spratling at the retail store were established by plaintiff’s testimony as 1, 2, 3, or 4 pieces of the silverware or jewelry, and the defendant’s customs agent’s report (exhibit 5, p. 3) establishes the retail quantities in which the merchandise was sold as 1 or 2 pieces, so that there is no real dispute as to the approximate quantities in which the silverware was sold at retad to consumers for their personal use. The pieces of silverware and jewelry sold at retail were individually wrapped in little chamois or felt bags with the Spratling insigne thereon, whereas the merchandise sold at wholesale was wrapped in tissue paper and packaged in boxes in the usual way for shipment.

There was no minimum quantity of pieces of the silverware and jewelry which those who bought for resale were required to purchase in order to receive the discount; it was only required that a dealer or one buying for resale establish that he or it was a bona fide dealer who bought for resale only. Plaintiff proved by witness Rendon, secretary to Spratling and assistant manager, that dealers, mail-order houses, department stores, and those who bought for resale purchased in the wholesale quantities of 100 to 1,000 pieces of the silverware and jewelry. It was established through the same witness that the average number of pieces of silverware and jewelry sold to such dealers and firms in the United States was 1,000 pieces (Tr. 32) and that the average number of pieces sold to dealers in Mexico was somewhat less but not less than the minimum of 100 pieces. On cross-examination, Rendon testified (Tr. 32) that dealers in Mexico did not buy in quantities of 2, 3, 4, or 5. Rendon was asked on cross-examination whether a consumer or tourist who purchased 1,000 pieces would receive the 25 per cent discount and he replied that such discount would not be granted because he was not a bona fide or established dealer (Tr. 29, 30). However, on redirect it was shown that no such sales of 1,000 pieces were ever sold to tourists or consumers (Tr. 33, 34), and defendant’s own proof shows the retail quantities to be 1 or 2 pieces (exhibit 5, p. 3). The defendant offered no testimonial evidence to contradict the testimony of Rendon that the silverware and jewelry were freely offered and sold to all purchasers in the usual wholesale quantities of 100 to 1,000 pieces, and there is nothing in the defendant’s documentary proof which rebuts or contradicts plaintiff’s proof in this respect. On the contrary, the list of wholesale buyers, dealers, department stores, and mail-order houses in the United States, shown in defendant’s exhibit 4, pages 7 and 8, and the invoice sales (pp. 8, 9, 10 of same exhibit) during April to November 1944 to such buyers for resale, running into thousands of dollars in Mexican currency, corroborate the testimony of Rendon that the average of wholesale quantities sold to wholesale buyers in [645]*645the United States was 1,000 pieces. Corroboration of Rendon’s testimony as to the usual wholesale quantities in respect to sales in Mexico is found in defendant’s exhibit 2, page 4, last paragraph, which contains the following:

The four wholesale customers are located in Mexico City (exclusive agent), Monterrey, Matamoros, and Merida. Sales to these customers were too voluminous to be copied in detail, covering from 10 to 100 different articles, and from one to 24 of each, ordered at one time. Examination of these sales showed strict adherence to list prices and allowance of the 25% discount in each case.

A recapitulation of the situation, therefore, shows it to be as follows: Insofar as offers

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 Cust. Ct. 642, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 721, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montgomery-ward-co-v-united-states-cusc-1951.