National Carloading Corp. v. United States

53 C.C.P.A. 57, 1966 CCPA LEXIS 409
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMay 12, 1966
DocketNo. 5217
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 53 C.C.P.A. 57 (National Carloading Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Carloading Corp. v. United States, 53 C.C.P.A. 57, 1966 CCPA LEXIS 409 (ccpa 1966).

Opinion

Almond, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the United States Customs Court, First Division, 55 Cust. Ct. 723 A.R.D. 191, affirming the judgment of Judge Donlon, sitting as the single judge in reappraisement, 49 Cust. Ct. 372,- Reap. Dec. 10323. Judge Donlon’s decision was on rehearing and affirms the findings and conclusions of the late Judge Jed Johnson in National Carloading Corp. v. United States, 47 Cust. Ct. 419, Reap. Dec. 10055.

The merchandise, consisting of spark plugs, was appraised on the basis of foreign value as defined in section 402a (c) of the Tariff Act [58]*58of 1930, as amended by the Customs Simplification Act of 1956. Ap-pellee contends that the spark-plugs come within the scope of the descriptive term “Automobile parts, finished” which appears on the final list of articles published by the Secretary of the Treasury (T.D. 54521) pursuant to section 6(a) of said Act. This list purports to name the articles subject to appraisement under section 402a.

Appellant contends that the spark plugs in issue are not on said finn.l list, and therefore the proper basis of appraisement is export value as defined in section 402 (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the Customs Simplification Act of 1956, and that such export values are represented by the unit invoice values for the various types of spark plugs here involved.

The merchandise consists of four series of spark plugs manufactured by Lodge Plugs, Ltd. of Rugby, England, imported into this country by Lodge Spark Plug Co. of Los Angeles in May 1959. They were invoiced and entered in United States currency and appraised in English currency at the following unit values, packing extra:

Invoiced and Entered Appraised Item Designation
$0.20 £ 0-2-1.42 Standard spark plugs
1.05 £ 0-7-4.91 Platinum spark plugs
0.25 £ 0-2-5.90 Silver spark plugs
0.75 £ 0-5-5.45 Racing spark plugs

By reason of the view we take of this case, we do not deem it necessary to reproduce in extenso the provisions of sections 402a and 402(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended. We deem it sufficient to recite the provisions of sections 6(a) and (b) of the Customs Simplification Act of 1956, Public Law 927 of August 2, 1956, 70 Stat. 943.

SEO. 6. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury shall determine and make public a list of the articles which shall be valued in accordance with section 402a, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by this Act, as follows:
As soon as practicable after the enactment of this Act the Secretary shall máke public a preliminary list of the imported articles which he shall have determined, after such investigation as he deems necessary, would have been appraised in accordance with section 402 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by this Act, at average values for each article which are 95 (or less) per centum of the average values at which such article was actually appraised during the fiscal year 1954. If within sixty days after the publication of such preliminary list any manufacturer, producer, .or wholesaler in the United States presents to the Secretary his reason for belief that any imported articles not specified in such list and like or similar to articles manufactured, produced, or sold at wholesale by him would have been appraised in accordance with section 402 at average values which are 95 (or less) per centum of the average values at which they were or -would have been appraised under section 402a, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by this Act, the Secretary shall cause such investigation of the matter to be made as he deems necessary. If in the opinion of the Secretary the reason for belief is substantiated by the investigation, the articles involved shall be added to the preliminary list and such list, including any additions so made thereto, shall [59]*59be published as a final list. Every article so specified in the final list which is entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the thirtieth day following the date of publication of the final list shall be appraised in accordance with the provisions of section 402a, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by this Act.
(b) The final list published in accordance with the provision of subsection (a), together with explanatory data, shall be transmitted promptly to the chairmen of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate.

As will hereinafter appear, we do not consider it appropriate to evaluate the competency and sufficiency of the evidence submitted by appellant to the trial courts below in support of its contention that it had made out a prima facie case for its claim for appraisement under export value as defined in section 402(b) and that the invoiced and entered values are the proper unit values for the imported merchandise.

At the original hearing, the case of Lodge Spark Plug Co. v. United States, 44 Cust. Ct. 448, Abs. 64136, was incorporated as a part of the record. That case held that spark plugs identical to those involved herein were properly classifiable as parts of internal combustion engines rather than as parts of automobiles. There is no provision for parts of internal combustion engines on the final list published by the Secretary of the Treasury. The trial court concluded that the spark plugs are not automobile parts and were not specified in the final list of articles to be appraised under section 402a of the Tariff Act, but that since plaintiff had failed to prove values other than those found by the appraiser, by operation of 28 USC 2633, the appraised values would stand.

On rehearing in B..D. 10323, the trial court reaffirmed the original judgment (R..D. 10055) concluding as a matter of law that the merchandise is not included in the final list of articles to be valued under the provisions of section 402a, and hence is to be valued under the provisions of section 402, and that, since plaintiff had not borne its burden of proof as to values, the values are the appraised values.

On appeal, the Customs Court, First Division, affirmed the judgment of the trial court, but on different grounds. It concluded as matters of law:

1. That the scope of the provision for “Automobile parts, finished,” appearing on the final list of articles published by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to section 6(a) of the Customs Simplification Act of 1956, is to be determined as of the date of publication of said list.
2. That the merchandise involved herein, being included in the final list of articles so published, is properly appraised in accordance with the provisions of section 402a (c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended.
3. That since the plaintiff has failed to prove otherwise, the values for the respective items of merchandise are as found by the appraiser.

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Bluebook (online)
53 C.C.P.A. 57, 1966 CCPA LEXIS 409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-carloading-corp-v-united-states-ccpa-1966.