Spud's Place v. United States

3 Cust. Ct. 199, 1939 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1786
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1939
DocketC. D. 234
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Cust. Ct. 199 (Spud's Place 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
Spud's Place v. United States, 3 Cust. Ct. 199, 1939 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1786 (cusc 1939).

Opinions

McClelland, Presiding Judge:

These protests are directed against the decision of the collector of customs at the port of Honolulu, T. H., imposing a tax at the rate of 3 cents per pound under the provisions of section 601 (c) (8) of the Revenue Act of 1932 as amended by section 701 of the Revenue Act of 1936, on the cocoanut oil contained in laundry soap brought to Honolulu from the Island of Guam.

At the outset it should be noted that in the brief submitted on behalf of the plaintiff it is stated:

Plaintiff concedes that, if the merchandise were taxable at all, said rate of 3 cents per pound was properly collected.

Plaintiff’s claim for exemption from the said tax is based upon two contentions: (1) That merchandise coming to the United States from Guam is not “imported” within the meaning of the tax imposing provisions of the Revenue Act of 1932, supra, and (2) that section 601 (b) (5) of the Revenue Act, supra, does not apply to merchandise from Guam.

Section 601 (a) and (b) of the Revenue Act of 1932, so far as pertinent, reads as follows:

SEC. 601. EXCISE TAXES ON CERTAIN ARTICLES.
(a) In addition to any other tax or duty imposed by law, there shall be imposed a tax as provided in subsection (e) on every article imported into the United States unless treaty provisions of the United States otherwise provide.
(b) The tax imposed under subsection (a) shall be levied, assessed; collected, and paid in the same manner as a duty imposed by the Tariff Act of 1930, and shall be treated for the purposes of all provisions of law relating to the customs revenue as a duty imposed by such Act, except that—
* * * * * *
(5) such tax * * * shall be imposed in full notwithstanding any provision of law granting exemption from or reduction of duties to products of any possession of the United States * * *.

In view of the fact that the issue raised by the plaintiff’s claim is that the merchandise was not “imported,” we find it necessary to decide whether this court has jurisdiction to decide that issue.

As recently as October 30, 1935, the third division of this court held that merchandise brought into the United States from the Virgin Islands was not imported from a foreign country; that the tax assessed thereon under the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930 was not a duty but an internal revenue tax, and that this court therefore had no jurisdiction to decide the issue as to whether or not the assessment was properly made. (Alpert v. United States, T. D. 47973.) In arriving at this conclusion the Third Division cited as controlling the cases of in re Fassett, 142 U. S. 479, and DeLima v. Bidwell, 182 U. S. 1.

The case of DeLima v. Bidwell, supra, was one of a series of cases well known as The Insular Tariff Cases, and involved the following [201]*201facts: Sugar was brought from Puerto Rico to the United States in 1899 following the cession of the island to the United States by Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The collector of customs at the port of New York sought to assess duties on such sugar under the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1897 which provided for a duty upon articles, among which was sugar “imported from foreign countries.” The importer claimed that the sugar was not dutiable under the provisions of the tariff act, sufra, since it was not imported “from a foreign country.”

Among the matters involved in the case was the nature of the remedy available to the plaintiff — whether the proper procedure was by suit in assumpsit against the collector in the State or Federal Circuit Court or by protest to the collector and transmittal thereof to the Board of General Appraisers (now this court) for determination of the issues.

It-was held that where the issue was whether an article had been imported or not the Board of General Appraisers had no jurisdiction over the case. It must be pointed out, however, that the Supreme Court did not hold that the mere fact that the goods had been brought to the United States from a possession thereof of itself deprived the Board of jurisdiction to determine the issues. The court reached its conclusion rather upon the basis of its decision in re Fassett, 142 U. S. 479, which, in effect, defined the jurisdiction of the Board of General Appraisers under the provisions of the Customs Administrative Act of 1890. The holding of the court in the DeLima case; supra, based upon its decision in the Fassett case, supra, was that when the issue was whether goods had been imported or not the remedy did not lie within the provisions of the Customs Administrative' Act, supra.

Since the Fassett case was, so to speak, the parent case on the subject of the jurisdiction of the Board of General Appraisers and, hence, of this court, it is pertinent to examine that case and the act upon which it was based in order to determine whether subsequent legislative enactment has changed the effect thereof.

The facts, so far as pertinent, in the Fassett case were as follows: A steam pleasure yacht of British origin was purchased in England by an American citizen and sailed over to this country under her own power. She came into the collection district the headquarters of which were the port of New York. The collector at that port was informed by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury that the yacht was liable to duty and was directed to take steps for her appraisement and assessment of duties thereon. The collector thereupon seized the yacht and detained her to enforce the payment of the duties. The owner filed á libel in the District Court for the Southern District of New York maintaining that the yacht was not an imported article within the meaning of the tariff laws of the United States.

[202]*202The collector applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of prohibition to the District Judge and alleged that the latter had no jurisdiction since the owner’s remedy lay by paying the duties and filing a protest under the provisions of the Customs Administrative Act of 1890 against the imposition of the duties with the collector which, if the collector adhered to his original decision to assess duty on the yacht, would be forwarded to the Board of General Appraisers for determination.

The court held:

(1) That the collector of customs had no authority to make any determination regarding any article which was not imported merchandise.

(2) That the only decisions of the collector from which appeals were provided to the Board of General Appraisers were decisions as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable upon imported merchandise.

(3) That the proceedings taken under section 15 of the Customs Administrative Act of 1890, supra, on appeal from the decision of the Board of General Appraisers brought up for review only the decision of the Board as to the construction of the law and the facts respecting only the classification of imported merchandise and the rate of duty imposed thereon under such classification.

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Related

In Re Fassett
142 U.S. 479 (Supreme Court, 1892)
De Lima v. Bidwell
182 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1901)
Downes v. Bidwell
182 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 1901)

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Bluebook (online)
3 Cust. Ct. 199, 1939 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spuds-place-v-united-states-cusc-1939.