48 F. 281 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Texas | 1891
The facts of this case show that precisely the same questions were at issue and passed upon by the board of general appraisers as are involved in the suit for forfeiture then and now pending in the district court for this district. In the district court the questions involved, as presented by the libel, are (1) whether the consignee was required to make lire declaration that the said imported goods embraced no mixture of ores or concentrates from different mines; and (2) whether
“They shall be employed at such ports, and within such territorial limits, as the secretary oí the treasury may from time to time prescribe, and are hereby authorized to exercise the powers and duties devolved upon thorn by this act, and to exercise, under the general jurisdiction of the secretary of the treasury, such other supervision over appraisements and classifications, for duty, of imported merchandise, as may be needful to secure lawful and uniform appraisements and classifications at the several ports. Three of the general appraisers shall be on duty as a board of general appraisers daily at the port of New York, during the business hours prescribed by the secretary of the treasury. * * *”
The thirteenth section provides for the revision of the reports of assistant appraisers as to value; the report of the appraisers as to value; the reappraisement by a general appraiser, if called for; and, in case of dissatisfaction by the importer or by the government, for an appeal to the board of three general appraisers, which shall be on duty at the port of New York, or to a board of three general appraisers who may be designated by the secretary of the treasury, which shall be on duty at that port or any other port; and the decision of the board of general appraisers is made final and conclusive- as to the dutiable value of such merchandise against all parties interested therein.
“ That the decision of the collector as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable upon imported merchandise, including all dutiable costs and charges, and as to all fees and exactions of whatever character, (except duties on tonnage,) shall be final and conclusive against all persons interested therein, unless the owner, importer, consignee, or agent of such merchandise, or the person paying such fees, charges, and exactions other than duties, shall, within ten days after, * but not before,’such ascertainment and liquidation of duties, as well in cases of merchandise entered in bond as for consumption, or within ten days after the payment of such fees, charges, and exactions, if dissatisfied with such decision, give notice in writing to the collector, setting forth therein distinctly and specifically, and in respect to each entry or payment, the reasons for his objections thereto, and, if the merchandise is entered for consumption, shall pay the full amount of the duties and charges ascertained to be due thereon. Upon such notice and payment, the collector shall transmit the invoice, and all the papers and exhibits connected therewith, to the board of three general appraisers, which shall be on duty at the port of Sew York, or to a board of throe general appraisers, who may be designated by the seerfitary of the treasury for such duty at that port, or at any other port; which hoard shall examine and decide the case thus submitted, and thoir decision, or that of a majority of them, shall be final and conclusive upon all persons interested therein, and the record shall be transmitted to the proper collector or person acting as such, who shall liquidate the entry accordingly, except,” etc.
An examination of tlie foregoing provisions of tlie act show's cl early that the invoice or the verified statement, in form of invoice, and the consular declaration prescribed and required by the act, presuppose an original lawful entry. The declaration required of tlie owner, agent, importer, consignee, or manufacturer, in terms, is based upon both entry and invoice. Theappraisement provided for presupposes an entry and invoice, and the assignment of tlie dutiable charges is based upon and presupposes an entry, invoice, and appraisal. In short, all the duties of customs officers prescribed in these sections, and, for that matter, in the whole act, relate to dealings with imported merchandise, in the regular course of passing tlie same through the custom-house. It therefore seems dear that the decision of the collector as to the rate and the amount of duties upon imported merchandise provided for in the fourteenth section, and which decision is made under certain circumstances reviewable by the board of genera] appraisers, is a decision as to the rate and amount of duties on imported merchandise lawfully entered, regularly invoiced, and regularly- appraised; and that a decision of the collector as to the rate and amount of duties on goods seized for forfeiture, and as if said goods had been legally entered, but in fact not entered, not invoiced, and not appraised, is not such a decision as is contemplated in said fourteenth section. This view as to the proper construction of the fourteenth section is strengthened by the language of tlie section itself, wherein it is provided “ that the decision of the board shall be final and conclusive upon all persons interested, and the record shall be transmitted to tlie proper collector, or person acting as such, who shall liquidate tlie entry accord-