Vulcan Match Co. v. United States

5 Cust. Ct. 188, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2133
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1940
DocketC. D. 398
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 5 Cust. Ct. 188 (Vulcan Match 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
Vulcan Match Co. v. United States, 5 Cust. Ct. 188, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2133 (cusc 1940).

Opinion

WalkeR, Judge:

This is a suit against the United States which arose at the port of Los Angeles wherein the plaintiff claims that the liquidation made by the collector of customs at that port of certain antidumping duties was based upon a so-called antidumping appraisement which was illegal and void in that it did not comply with the provisions of regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to authority conferred in the Antidumping Act of 1921.

When the case was called for trial counsel for the plaintiff moved that the record in reappraisement 104400-A, Guy B. Barham Co. v. United States, covering the identical merchandise and between the same parties as the protest at bar, be received in evidence under the provision in Rule 25 of this court which reads as follows:

The record in a reappraisement proceeding, before a single judge (including samples, testimony, exhibits, and record of proceedings) may, in the discretion of the court, be admitted in evidence in any other proceeding involving similar merchandise or an issue arising upon the same state of facts.

Objection to the motion was made by counsel for the Government on the grounds (1) that the issue in reappraisement and classification cases is dissimilar, (2) that no excuse was shovyn why the witnesses in the reappraisement proceeding could not have been produced to testify on the trial of the present case, and (3) that Rule 25 permits the admission in evidence of the record made on a reappraisement proceeding only in another reappraisement proceeding. Ruling on the objections was reserved, the usual exception to the party ruled against being granted, and the case was submitted, time being allowed for briefs.

The record offered was made in reappraisement proceedings which were initiated by way of an appeal to reappraisement by the Customs Court from findings of value made by the appraiser as to the merchandise which forms the basis for the present suit. At the hearing on said appeal plaintiff attacked the validity of the appraisement made under the antidumping act, supra, by introducing testimony to establish failure of compliance, on the defendant’s part, with the applicable customs regulations, but the final judgment in the case dismissed the appeal for a jurisdictional defect, i. e., that it was taken, not against the findings made under the antidumping act, but against the findings of value made under the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930.

It might not be amiss to point out here that in a later case, United States v. C. J. Tower & Sons, 24 C. C. P. A. 456, T. D. 48912, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals subsequently held that failure to refer to dumping duties in the notices of appeal to reappraisement does not render such notices insufficient as a matter of law, but that [190]*190appeals which advise the court that the appellant is dissatisfied with the appraisement, that is, with the value found by the local appraiser, are sufficient to meet the requirement of the statute. Thus it would appear that this court was in error when it dismissed the reappraisement appeal.

Liquidation of the entry followed in regular course after such dismissal, based upon the values returned by the appraiser both under the antidumping act and the Tariff Act of 1930, and the present suit was commenced by a protest filed within the statutory time following such liquidation.

There can be no doubt that the issue of the validity of appraisement, whether under the antidumping act or the tariff act, can be raised ■either by reappraisement proceedings or by a suit brought by way of protest. United States v. Central Vermont Railway Co., 17 C. C. P. A. 166, T. D. 43474; United States v. Porto Rico Coal Co., 17 id. 288, T. D. 43716, and United States v. Gilson Bros., 20 id. 117, T. D. 45753. There is no requirement that an election of remedies be made since they are not inconsistent remedies. The distinction is that in the one case direct attack is made upon the appraisement, whereas in the other a collateral attack is made, and the fact that the appraisement has become final under the provisions of section’ 501 of the Tariff Act of 1930 or section 210 of the antidumping act so as to bar direct appeal therefrom does not prevent the bringing of a suit for the purpose of reviewing the validity of a liquidation made by the collector based upon such alleged illegal appraisement. Had the reappraisement proceedings culminated in a determination of the validity of the appraisement adverse to the plaintiff’s claim prosecution of the present suit would be barred on the ground of res adjudicata. Such is not the fact in the case at bar. The appeal to reappraisement was dismissed because of a defect in the plaintiff’s pleading therein. Under such circumstances there was no determination of the question of the validity of the appraisement and therefore no room for the application of the doctrine of res adjudicata.

The general rule as to the admissibility of former evidence requires that there be a showing that it is impossible to produce the witness who testified. This requirement is probably based upon the theory that testimony given in a former trial is secondary evidence. Dover v. Greenwood, 177 Fed. 946. The general rule, however, has been modified insofar as it applies to customs practice. In such cases there is no requirement of a showing that it is impossible to present the witnesses for reexamination or recross examination, since such requirement would seriously hamper the expeditious adjudication thereof to the detriment of commerce, industry, agriculture, finance, and the revenue of the Government. United States v. Bosca, Reed, MacKinnon Co. et al., 24 C. C. P. A. 364, 370, T. D. 48829, citing United States [191]*191v. Stone & Downer Co., 274 U. S. 225, 235. The only requirement is that where the parties to the pending suit are different from the parties in the previous case the opposing party should be afforded the opportunity to examine or cross-examine the witnesses whose testimony is sought to be admitted or incorporated.

In the case at bar the parties to the pending and previous cases are the same, the merchandise is the identical merchandise, and the issue, the validity of the appraisement under the antidumping statute, is the same. Under such circumstances if the opposing party wished to examine or cross-examine any of the witnesses whose testimony is sought to be admitted it should have made a motion addressed to the discretion of the court to permit the admission of the record only on the terms that the desired witnesses be produced for that purpose, and having failed to do so it cannot be heard now to complain that the record in the previous case was inaccurate or incomplete.

The foregoing disposes of the Government’s first two grounds of objection. The sole remaining ground is based upon the contention that Rule 25 permits the admission in evidence of the record made on a prior reappraisement proceeding only in a subsequent reappraisement proceeding. The rule provides that “The record in a reappraisement proceeding, before a single judge * * * may * * * be admitted in evidence in any other proceeding involving similar merchandise or an issue arising upon the same state of facts.” If the evidence offered on the trial of the reappraisement proceeding were of such a character, i.

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40 C.C.P.A. 59 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1952)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
5 Cust. Ct. 188, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vulcan-match-co-v-united-states-cusc-1940.