4 Ct. Cust. 320 | C.C.P.A. | 1913
delivered the opinion of the court:
The appellants in this case in the course of their business imported at the port of New York certain woolens and cottons for the manufacture of men’s wear. Some of the goods were in full pieces of 50 yards and others in lengths cut from full pieces. After entry, and apparently on the claim that some of the goods had been cut into lengths and all of them shrunk after invoicing, the appraiser, to make market value, subjected the merchandise to an addition of a penny a yard for dampage or shrinking and the lengths to a further addition of 10 per cent for cutting. From this action of the appraiser an appeal to reappraisement was taken by the importers. While the issue raised by that proceeding was still undecided the woolens and cottons which are here the subject of controversy arrived, and as they were apparently similar in all respects to those upon which the appraiser had imposed additions to make market value, the problem of what entry should be made was presented to the importers for solution. On the one hand, if the importation was entered with the additions to make market value, it might turn out that the additions constituted no part of market value, with the result that the import
True, the importers did make the notation on the entry—
Importer adds to make market value as claimed by the United States appraiser on previous invoices, but importer claims this addition is made under duress in order to avoid delay and possibly additional duties pending litigation before-the board oí United States appraisers.
So far as we can find, however, there is not the slightest pretense that the importers were obliged by the collector of customs, or any officer clothed with authority, to prepare their entry in any particular form or that they were put under any compulsion whatever to make any entry other than that which they chose to present. On the contrary, they were expressly notified in writing by the deputy collector that they might enter the merchandise covered by the entry at any value which they might desire. No unlawful demand or requirement was made of the importers by the collector or his subordinates and if the former acted under any constraint or compulsion it was the constraint and compulsion induced by their own fears that the law might ultimately be interpreted, against them by the board and the courts.
Had the collector forced the importers to include in their entry admissions which they did not desire to make, or had he refused to receive their entry unless they excluded from it declarations which they deemed it proper to include for their protection in case of dispute as to the duties imposed, some claim of duress might have been made within the reasoning of Stein v. United States (1 Ct. Cust. Appls., 36; T. D. 31007), and of Stein v. United States (1 Ct. Cust. Appls., 478; T. D. 31525). Such conduct on the part of the collector might amount to an illegal exaction under color of
The decision of the Board of General Appraisers is affirmed.