United States v. Proctor

15 Ct. Cust. 373, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 5
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 23, 1928
DocketNo. 2922
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 15 Ct. Cust. 373 (United States v. Proctor) 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
United States v. Proctor, 15 Ct. Cust. 373, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 5 (ccpa 1928).

Opinion

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This case is an appeal by the Government from a judgment of the United States Customs Court, First Division, which affirmed the reappraised values found by Associate Justice Fischer in reappraise-ments Nos. 51076-A and 51165-A. The reappraisement decisions of the associate justice found values different from either the entered value or the value found by the appraiser. On review by division 1 of the court below Justice Brown wrote the opinion of the court, the result of which was concurred in by Justice Sullivan. Justice McClelland dissented. The decision of. the court below is in the following language:

This case involves solely a question of fact. After a careful examination of the record, we conclude that the findings made by the justice below are correct. We find as facts herein that the foreign-market values of the goods in question at the respective dates of shipment (no export value being higher) are the figures found by Justice Fischer. The ]jpappráised values are therefore affirmed.

Both appellant and appellees agree that the court below found foreign-market value (sec: 402 (b), Title IV, Tariff Act of 1922) and that there is no export value (id. (c)) for the merchandise in question.

The only question involved in this appeal, it being an appeal from re-reappraisement, is conceded to be, Is there any substantial evidence to sustain the judgment and finding of the court below?

The merchandise involved consists of tuning pins and zither pins, imported from Germany in the months of February and June in the year 1925. The pins are of steel and the illustrative exhibits show them to be something over 2 inches in length, probably a quarter of an inch in diameter, and apparently made from round steel bars or wire, flattened on four sides at one end to fit a key and somewhat pointed at the other, the pointed end being threaded. Near the flattened end is a hole entirely through the pin for the purpose of the insertion of the piano wire or zither wire.

[375]*375The record is a very confusing one. The importers, before the single justice, apparently attempted to prove that there was no home market value for the merchandise in so far as zither and piano pins used in Germany were ordinarily of different sizes from those used in this country; that the threads of the pins used in Germany were made by hand with a rasp, while the threads of the imported merchandise were made by an automatic threading machine; and that the pins used in Germany were lacquered and some of them were bright on the ends, while those sent to America were blue.

The goods were entered and invoiced at the price paid by the American importers, which the Government contends is not their foreign value and which was much lower by reason of large discounts due to quantity purchased than certain sales in Germany for home consumption, which the Government contends represents the home market value of the merchandise. Before this court, however, the importers argue that the single justice found foreign market value and that the proof offered by importers abundantly sustains such finding of value.

Justice Sullivan concurred in the conclusion reached in the ruling opinion by Justice Brown, and stated, in part, as follows:

The twenty-fourth assignment of error relates to the quantity purchased, being 500,000, and it is claimed this quantity is large and influenced the price. I think that is correct. It did influence the price. The fact is stated by the affidavit of the seller that anyone in Germany or anywhere else would obtain the same price for like quantities. That being true, it destroys the effect of a higher price for a less quantity.
On the whole record I feel satisfied the court below arrived at the correct value of the merchandise, and I therefore concur in the conclusion reached by Judge Brown.

It is clear that the court did find, or attempted to find, the foreign-market value, and in doing so, among other allowances, allowed a 30 per centum discount which was allowed only upon sales of over 5,000,000 pins during a half year. Certain facts are conceded, among them being the fact that the manufacturers of this character of goods in Germany belonged to an organization or “bund” and that the price for home consumption was controlled by it, but that there was no attempt to control prices for export; that there were five firms, including the manufacturer of the goods in controversy, in Germany who made this character of merchandise, but that W. Wagner, jr., who manufactured the tuning pins in question, was the only manufacturer who exported to the United States; and that he sold 60 per cent of his entire output to Ham'macher, Schlemmer & Co., the American importers, who are the only American purchasers of such goods.

[376]*376The appraisement of the goods involved the allowance of discount as follows:

For sale of one design within a half year’s time:
1,000-2,000 mille_ 5% consumption discount.
2,000-3,000 mille_ 10% consumption discount.
3,000-5,000 mille-20% consumption discount.
Over 5,000 mille_-30% consumption discount.

It is admitted that no sale in Germany in the half-year period had reached the quantity entitling the purchaser to the 30 per centum discount. There is a statement in the record to the effect that anyone in Germany or elsewhere who purchased in the quantities indicated by the price list would be privileged to obtain and would obtain the discount indicated.

The sworn affidavit of Alfred Walle, a representative of W. Wagner, Jr., produced by the importers, no doubt for the purpose of showing that there was no foreign market for home consumption for the goods in question, shows, in part, as follows:

I am the proprietor of the firm of W. Wagner, Jr., and maintain a factory for the manufacture, among other products, of tuning pins at Plettenberg, Cologne, Germany.
During the months of March, April, May, June, and July of this year I exported to Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. (Inc.), of 133 Fourth Avenue, New York City, eight shipments of tuning pins, which, I am informed, are now before the appraiser of the port of New York for appraisement. I am making this affidavit for the purpose of setting forth certain facts which should be of assistance to the appraiser in appraising the said shipments.
For about fifty years Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. (Inc.), has had the sole agency in the United States of our tuning pins. For many years and at all of the times in question Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. (Inc.), has purchased about sixty per cent (60%) of the entire output of our factory.
There is not a single jobber or dealer in all of Germany who purchases tuning pins in the large quantities in which Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. (Inc.), does, the purchases of German jobbers and dealers being in comparatively limited quantities. Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. (Inc.), in the course of a single year purchases and imports from us in excess of six million tuning pins, whereas the jobbers in Germany usually purchase not more than sixty thousand, so that the proportion is in the ratio of about one thousand to ten.

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15 Ct. Cust. 373, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-proctor-ccpa-1928.