Wedemeyer v. United States

25 Cust. Ct. 360, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 630
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJuly 31, 1950
DocketNo. 7854; Entry No. 722446, etc.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 25 Cust. Ct. 360 (Wedemeyer 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
Wedemeyer v. United States, 25 Cust. Ct. 360, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 630 (cusc 1950).

Opinion

OliveR, Chief Judge:

The appeals for reappraisement listed in schedule “A,” hereto attached and made a part hereof, involve the proper value of certain silver-plated cigarette lighters exported from Mexico and entered at the port of New York. The lighters in question were exported between February 15, 1945, and June 13, 1945.

The purchase price of 3 Mexican pesos each, as shown on the invoices, was used as the basis for the calculation of the entry, certain additions or deductions having been made to arrive at the entered values. Appraisement was made at 6.50 Mexican pesos each, plus 0.88 per centum, plus containers and packing in all instances except that in reappraisements 165150-A, 165151-A, and 165152-A ap-praisement was made at 6.50 Mexican pesos each, plus 3.3 per centum, plus packing and containers, on. the basis of export value.

The plaintiff contends that the entered values represent the proper values and further claims that allowances should be made for alleged defective, worthless, or unmerchantable lighters. The defendant, on the other hand, maintains that the importer has failed to establish that the entered values or any other values less than the appraised values represent either the foreign or export values in accordance with section 402, Tariff Act of 1930, and further contends that the proper values are the appraised values.

The record consists of the oral testimony of several witnesses, samples of silver-plated lighters, and documentary exhibits containing information with respect to the valuation of lighters made by this and other manufacturers in Mexico. All of this evidence has been carefully considered in the determination of the value of the imported cigarette lighters herein.

The importer testified that he contracted for the purchase of 100,000 lighters at a price of 3 Mexican pesos each (plaintiff’s exhibit 2) with a manufacturer, Encendedores de Latón Plateados, referred to herein as Padilla. This quantity was later increased to 200,000, of which 30,500 were delivered. The importer paid for these lighters by forwarding certain sums of money to one Leff, his agent in Mexico. The plaintiff further testified that the contract in evidence (plaintiff’s exhibit 2) did not represent the entire contract between himself, Leff, and the manufacturer (R. 117) since there was no reference therein to advance payments made by him. A ledger account of the importer (defendant’s exhibit 9) indicates a payment to Leff of $10,000 over and above the consular invoice value of the imported lighters (R. 122). The witness explained that this amount was not indicated on the invoices because the invoice values took care of only the foreign invoice prices, whereas the payments to Leff included, in addition to the manufacturer’s price, Leff’s commission and expenses (R. 138). [362]*362.He later testified there was a credit balance to him for which he had mot received any merchandise (R. 219).

The examiner testified that in connection with his valuation report to the appraiser he considered information received by him concerning importations of Mexican silver-plated lighters imported at the ports .of Chicago, Laredo, Brownsville, and Omaha. He testified that his ¡report of value was influenced particularly by the facts involved in ;an importation of 100 silver-plated lighters at the port of Omaha, Nebr., which were manufactured by one Cyrnhos, another manu-ifacturer of silver-plated lighters in Mexico (defendant's exhibit 24). 'The purchase price of such Omaha importation was at a unit price, of *6.50 Mexican pesos each, which corresponds to the appraised values .herein. He stated that the difference in quantities between the lighters Involved in Wedemeyer’s purchase and those involved in the Omaha •importation did not affect the valuation for customs purposes. The witness stated he rejected the evidence referring to sales and prices .of still other manufacturers in Mexico at either 5 or 5.50 Mexican pesos (exhibits 29 and 30) because those prices related to sales in the home market whereas he found a higher export value. The purchase price of 3 Mexican pesos involved in a shipment of lighters imported .at Brownsville, Tex. (exhibit 28), was not accepted by him because the buyer there had contracted to purchase the entire output of the manufacturer there involved (R. 422). He also testified that he reported a valuation of 6.50 Mexican pesos as the export value of “such” merchandise, which he found to be higher than the foreign value for •“similar” merchandise.

Our appellate court in United States v. Malhame & Co., 19 C. C. T. A. (Customs) 164, 167, T. D. 45276, has set out the measure of .duty which devolves upon the plaintiff in a reappraisement proceeding to be as follows:

The issue is not whether the value returned by the appraiser is the proper dutiable value of the merchandise, but whether there is (a) a foreign value or/and (b) an export value, and, if both, which is the higher, and the importer, having been the appealing party in the first instance, it was incumbent upon it “to meet «very material issue involved in the case.” Meadows, Wye & Co. v. United States, supra. * * *
Under the rules stated it was incumbent upon the importer in this case, upon •its appeal to reappraisement, to show, as in all judicial proceedings, (a) what the foreign value as defined by paragraph (b), supra, was, or that there was no such foreign value; and (b) what the export value, if any, as defined by paragraph (c), supra, was.

In the determination of the value.of this merchandise under section 402 of the Tariff Act of 1930, it is necessary to primarily consider the •foreign or export value of “such” and then, secondarily, “similar” merchandise. In this connection, the consideration of the value of “similar” merchandise becomes necessary only if there is no “such” [363]*363merchandise. Consideration of tbe value of “such” merchandise must be exhausted before resorting to the value of “similar” merchandise. Meadows, Wye & Co. (Inc.) et al. v. United States, 17 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 36, T. D. 43324. Further, the law does not use the words “such” and “similar” synonymously but with different meanings and alternatively. In United States v. Irving Massin cfc Bros., 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 19, T. D. 42714, the court stated:

* * * foreign value was to be ascertained, first, by “the market value, or the price * * * at which such,” or the identical merchandise is offered for sale on the foreign markets, as provided by the statute, and, second, in the event that such merchandise is not so offered, then by “the market value or the price,” .at which similar merchandise is so offered. [Italics quoted.]

It is evident from the above quotation that “such” merchandise carries the same meaning as “identical” merchandise.

The record discloses that Padilla, the manufacturer of the lighters In question, produced 10,000 to 12,000 lighters per month, and therefore was in no position to offer and did not offer or sell his merchandise to other purchasers until Wedemeyer’s order had been filled (defendant’s exhibit 27). This exhibit also shows that Padilla’s price of 3 pesos each was dependent upon a purchase of at least 100,000 .lighters.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Cust. Ct. 360, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wedemeyer-v-united-states-cusc-1950.