United States v. 76,552 Pounds of Frog Legs

423 F. Supp. 329, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13302
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedSeptember 10, 1976
DocketCiv. A. No. 75-B-221
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 423 F. Supp. 329 (United States v. 76,552 Pounds of Frog Legs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. 76,552 Pounds of Frog Legs, 423 F. Supp. 329, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13302 (S.D. Tex. 1976).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GARZA, Chief Judge.

This is an action for condemnation of certain adulterated frog legs that were brought into the United States in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 301, § 331, and § 334(d)(1) and 19 U.S.C.A. § 1592. The customs statutes, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1592, provide for forfeiture for making false statements when introducing imported merchandise in interstate commerce; the food and drug statutes, 21 U.S.C.A. § 331(a) and § 334(d)(1), provide for condemnation of adulterated or mislabeled foods. Jurisdiction is conferred by 28 U.S.C.A. § 1345, since the United States is the Plaintiff, and by 28 U.S.C.A. § 1355, since this is a forfeiture action. The original claimants, Manuel Sanchez and Progressive Sea Products, Inc., (hereinafter Progressive) filed Motions for Release of Article contending this Court has authority, prior to condemnation of the food, to grant its release for export if the provisions of 21 U.S.C.A. § 381 are met. At the hearing on the Motions held on February 2, 9, and 10, 1976, the claimant, in the alternative, made an oral motion for release of the article for reconditioning, subsequent to condemnation, pursuant to the provisions of 21 U.S. C.A. § 334(d)(1).

After the hearing, the original claimants, Manuel Sanchez and Progressive and the Government filed Motions for Summary Judgment and the Mercantile Trust Company National Association filed a Motion to Intervene as a claimant. Because of the admissions and stipulations of the parties, the record of a collateral criminal proceeding, United States of America v. Progressive Sea Products, Inc., a corporation and Manuel A. Sanchez, Jr., an Individual, Criminal No. 76-B-112 (May 17, 1976, S.D. Tex.), and a willingness of the parties to stand on the evidence presented at the hearing, there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the food involved herein should be condemned. After .an extensive three day hearing, this Court feels nothing further can be offered by the parties that would aid in the exercise of the discretionary authority granted by Congress under the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (hereinaftér the Act), 21 U.S.C.A. § 301, et seq. The record has not been fully developed regarding the customs law violation, however, because specific instances of false statements were neither pleaded nor shown to be undisputed. This Court will treat the parties’ Motions for Summary Judgment as Motions for Partial Summary Judgment.

During the hearing the claimant called to the witness stand Isauro Farias, a Customs Warehouse Official, Ricardo Perez Medrano, a Customs Broker, Manuel Ornelas Ramos, a lawyer from Mexico, Tim Edwards, the Manager of the Valley Trucking Co., Sam Martinez, an employee of the Claimant Progressive Sea Products, Inc., and Manuel Sanchez, the President of the claimant Progressive Sea Products, Inc. During the hearing the United States called to the witness stand Jack Ackerman, a former employee of Marine Protein, Inc., John Bitten-bender, Federal Food and Drug Administration Investigator (hereinafter F.D.A. or F.D.A. Agent), Servando Hernandez, one of the owners of Industrias G.M.E., a Mexican corporation located in San Fernando, Mexico, Roman L. Longoria, the Import Program Manager and Director of the Mexican [333]*333Liaison Staff of the F.D.A., William Graham, Compliance Officer with the F.D.A., and Special United States Customs Agent Gene Nicko. On the basis of this testimony, the documentary evidence, the record of a criminal proceeding arising out of the same incident, and certain stipulations entered into by the parties, the following facts were established.

Agent Gene Nicko, of the United States Customs Service, received information from a confidential informer that certain frog leg shippers were engaged in illegal activity. He was told that frog leg importers are forced to sell, at depressed prices, all contaminated frog legs that had been refused importation entry into the United States. Salvage buyers, who bought this food product at reduced prices, would subsequently illegally reintroduce this food into the Unite'd States at regular prices. His information was that Manuel Sanchez, Jr., owner of Progressive Sea Products, Inc., was buying large quantities of rejected frog legs, and consigning them to Jose Mendoza, a buyer in Mexico, for export. Once out of the country, the contaminated frog legs would be packed under other sea products and brought back into the United States and sold as wholesome food products. Pursuant to this information Agent Nicko began his investigation.

He inspected records kept at the Brownsville Port of Entry which indicated that large quantities of frozen frog legs, consigned to Jose Mendoza, were being kept at the Tex-Mex Cold Storage facility in Brownsville, Texas. Agent Nicko enlisted the aid of Customs Agents at the Port of Entry to keep him informed when frog legs were either exported or imported. Nothing happened for six weeks so Nicko decided to check out the local cold storage facilities in Brownsville. When he interviewed the Manager, Walter Brimmer, he was told that some of Progressive’s employees were in the back of the facility repackaging frog legs at that very moment. The agent investigated and discovered that Penninsular Brand Frog Legs, Products of India, were being repackaged into boxes marked “Products of Mexico, packed by Industrias G.M.E., Mexico, D.F.”, but this was not being done under the supervision of a Customs Officer. He was told the boxes from India were in such poor condition they necessitated repackaging.

During his investigation he noticed the boxes had been manufactured by the International Paper Company in Edinburg, Texas. The manager of the paper box company was contacted and he told Nicko that the boxes had been sold to a distributor named D. K. Young. Mr. Young was contacted and it was determined that Progressive, of Brownsville, Texas, ordered 15,000 ten pound boxes and 4,000 forty pound boxes. All these boxes were labeled: “Products of Mexico, Frozen Frog Legs, Packed by Industrias G.M.E., Mexico, D.F.” These boxes had been shipped to Winter Garden Cold Storage facility in Brownsville, Texas.

In investigating the records of Winter Garden Cold Storage, Nicko determined that 20,000 pounds of frog legs stored there had been shipped north. He determined that some of the frog legs came from Marine Protein, Inc., some from Pez-Mex, Inc., in Matamoros, Mexico, and some had been transferred from Tex-Mex Cold Storage, where he had witnessed the repacking. Most were repackaged in the Product of Mexico box. Nicko was skeptical of what he had been told about the repacking because only five to ten per cent of the boxes needed repackaging. He also discovered Progressive had ordered enough boxes to pack the contents of the entire warehouse and these boxes were ■ being stored in Brownsville, Texas, instead of being sent to Mexico. It was probably thought unusual that an American company would order boxes labeled “Products of Mexico” and bearing another company’s name. This could be explained by credit necessities and the close connection claimant Sanchez alleges he had with the Mexican company. Some doubt is cast on this explanation, however, since it was disputed during the hearing whether claimant Sanchez was authorized to use the name of the Mexican company.

[334]*334Further investigation revealed that a great number of frog legs were in violation of the 90-day export limitation and extensions had not been requested. The Customs Agent felt this indicated the frog legs were not intended for export and that the repacking had been done to conceal the true nature of the frog legs.

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Bluebook (online)
423 F. Supp. 329, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-76552-pounds-of-frog-legs-txsd-1976.