Waterbury Lock & Specialty Co. v. United States

17 Cust. Ct. 87, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 501
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 2, 1946
Docket(C. D. 1025)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 17 Cust. Ct. 87 (Waterbury Lock & Specialty 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
Waterbury Lock & Specialty Co. v. United States, 17 Cust. Ct. 87, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 501 (cusc 1946).

Opinion

Oliver, Presiding Judge:

The merchandise before us, exported from Germany and entered at the port of Boston, consists of small metal disks measuring approximately one-fourth inch in diameter and one-eighth inch in thickness. The center has been pierced, leaving a hole about one-sixteenth inch in diameter, reamed on both sides. The outer surface of the disk is smooth but the edges have been beveled.

These disks were entered at 35 per centum ad valorem as lock washers under paragraph 330 of the Tariff Act of 1930. This was clearly erroneous. They were classified as washers at six-tenths of 1 cent per pound under the same paragraph and the entry was liquidated at this rate on August 26, 1940. Thereafter, on November 20, 1940, the entry was reliquidated and duty was assessed at 1 cent each and 50 per centum ad valorem as parts, finished or unfinished, of articles valued above 20 cents per dozen and designed to be carried on or about the person (cigar or cigarette lighters) under paragraph 1527 (c) (2), on the authority of Greenberg & Josefsberg v. United States, 2 Cust. Ct. 50, C. D. 86, affirmed in 28 C. C. P. A. 138, C. A. D. 135. The above reliquidation was made by virtue of the provisions of section 521, Tariff Act of 1930, reading as follows:

SEC. 521. RELIQUIDATION ON ACCOUNT OF FRAUD.
If the collector finds probable cause to believe there is fraud in the case, he may reliquidate an entry within two years (exclusive of the time during which a protest is pending) after the date of liquidation or last reliquidation.

Plaintiff challenges the reliquidation as untimely, contending that the burden is on the Government to establish actual fraud; that it has failed to sustain this burden and has not even established that there was probable cause to believe fraud existed in the case.

[89]*89The Government contends that there is ample evidence that there was probable cause to believe fraud existed in the case and that, therefore, the collector’s action in reliquidating was proper under the provisions of section 521. Defendant has gone further, however, and has moved to dismiss the protest on the ground that the Waterbury Lock & Specialty Co. is not a proper party plaintiff.

Beyond the above questions and on the merits, plaintiff contends that while the entire importation of 150,000 of these disks was used to make sparking wheels for lighters, they are not dutiable as parts of such pocket lighters as are provided for in paragraph 1527 (c) (2), but are properly dutiable at 80 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1527 (d) as:

Stampings * * * and other materials of metal * * * suitable for use in the manufacture of any of the foregoing articles in this paragraph * * * [pocket lighters].

On the question of whether or not the collector could properly reliquidate this entry, section 514 of the Tariff Act of 1930 provides in part that:

* * * all decisions of the collector * * * and his liquidation or reliqui-dation of any entry * * * shall, upon the expiration of sixty days after the date of such liquidation * * * be final and conclusive upon all persons * * * unless the importer, consignee, or agent of the person paying such charge or exaction * * * shall, within sixty days after, but not before such liquidation * * * file a protest in writing with the collector * * *

Section 521, as hereinbefore set forth, permits the collector to reliquidate an entry at any time within 2 years if he “finds probable cause to believe there is fraud in the case.”

The facts upon which the collector acted may be briefly noted as follows:

Subsequent to the original liquidation herein, an investigation of importations of these metal disks disclosed what the grand jury for the southern district of New York, in an indictment (exhibit 3) filed in the United States district court on October 9, 1940, described as a conspiracy to violate title 19, sections 1591 and 1593 (a) and (b) of the United States Code. Among the alleged conspirators named in the indictment were Buchmann Manufacturing Co., Inc., Buchmann Spark-Wheel Oorp., Rudolf Buchmann, and one Erich Schmidt. The indictment recited, among other parts of said alleged conspiracy, that:

It was further a part of said conspiracy that the defendants Erich Schmidt? Rudolf Buchmann and the Buchmann Manufacturing Co. Inc. would cause certain merchandise, to wit, approximately 150,000 metal sparking-wheels used as parts of cigar and cigarette lighters, the exact amount being to the Grand Jurors unknown, to be entered and introduced into the commerce of the United States by means of certain false and fraudulent invoices and declarations, which said invoices and declarations would relate to the said merchandise and would [90]*90be false and fraudulent in that they would describe the said merchandise as “steel washers’’, whereas in truth and in fact, as the said defendants then and there well knew, the said merchandise would not consist of steel washers, but would consist of metal sparking-wheels to be used as parts of cigar and cigarette lighters; and which said invoices and declarations would be false and fraudulent in that they would describe the exporter of the said merchandise as a certain person named Franz Baleh, whereas in truth and in fact, as the defendants then and .there well knew, the exporter of the said merchandise would be the defendant Rudolf Buchmann; and which said invoices and declarations would be false and fraudulent in that they would describe the importer of the said merchandise as the Waterbury Loch & Specialty Co., Milford, Connecticut, whereas in truth and in fact, as the defendants then and there well knew, the said merchandise would be imported for the defendants Erich Schmidt and the Buchmann Manufacturing Co., Inc. [Italics supplied.]

The above allegation refers to “approximately 150,000 metal sparking-wheels used as parts of cigar and cigarette lighters” which would be described as “steel washers” and further that the importer would be falsely described as the “Waterbury Lock & Specialty Co., Milford, Connecticut, whereas in truth and in fact * * * the said merchandise would be imported for the defendants Erich Schmidt and the BuchmaNN Manufacturing Co., Inc.” The merchandise before us consists of 150,000 pieces, was described as “steel washers,” and the Waterbury Lock & Specialty Co. of Milford, Conn., was described as the importer.

To the indictment (exhibit 3), the defendants pleaded guilty on or about February 20, 1941, and were sentenced variously to fines or imprisonment (exhibit 4).

On October 24, 1940, John J. Kahler, customs agent at Boston, notified the collector of customs at Boston of the result of an investigation had in connection with the merchandise now before us, being Boston Consumption Entry 3146 of September 8, 1939 (exhibit 1), enclosing and incorporating therein by reference a report from the supervising customs agent at New York (exhibit 2). In requesting the reliquidation of this entry, the collector was notified (exhibit 1):

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Border Brokerage Co. v. United States
41 Cust. Ct. 49 (U.S. Customs Court, 1958)
Rohner Gehrig Co. v. United States
39 Cust. Ct. 436 (U.S. Customs Court, 1957)
Buegeleisen & Jacobson, Inc. v. United States
35 Cust. Ct. 237 (U.S. Customs Court, 1955)
Stekert v. United States
33 Cust. Ct. 357 (U.S. Customs Court, 1954)
Sanford Products Corp. v. United States
31 Cust. Ct. 308 (U.S. Customs Court, 1953)
Curtig Co. v. United States
30 Cust. Ct. 430 (U.S. Customs Court, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 Cust. Ct. 87, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waterbury-lock-specialty-co-v-united-states-cusc-1946.