Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-07
WHISKY AND ITS EXPORT
TEXT OF SOLICITOR PHILLIPS
BERMUDA DECISION.

prepared by Solicitor General Phillips
and approved by Attorney General
Brewster, in regard to the proposed with
drawal of spirits to be shipped to Bermu-
da, is addressed to the Secretary of the
Treasury and says: ''Yours of May 81
states that large quantities of domestic
distilled spirits now remain in the dis
tillery bonded warehouses subject to the
tax payable within three years from the
date of their entry for deposit, under the
act of May %, 1880, and that time during
Which the payment of the tax is suspend
ed upon 100000 gallons thereof expires
within the present calendar year,
and that you are informed that the own
ers of a large quantity of such spirits pro-
pose to withdraw it under section 1880
Revised Statutes, and the acts of June 8.
1874, and March 1, 1879, in
order TO ship into Hamilton, Bermuda,
with the purpose after landing it there
OF shipping it back to this country and
entering 1t either for warehOusing or for
consumption under section 2500 Revised
Statutes, claiming at the same time that
under the warehouse laws such spirits
may remain in the warehouse without the
payment of duties for a period not eX-
ceeding years from the date of their i'm
portation. Section 2970 Revised
Statutes. In pursuance of this
plan several thousand barrels of
spirits are now at Newport News, Va,
for the purpose of shipment.
Thereupon you ask: ''First. Is such
shipment of whisky, with such purpose
and intention to Bermuda and landing it
there, an expectation within the intent of
section 1880 Revised Statutes and the act
of 1874, laws "a, +" and does such shipment
and landing there fulfill the conditions of
expectations, bond and discharge of the
whisky from the internal revenue
thereon?
Second. Is such whisky, upon return
to this country, entitled to be admitted
under section 250O Revised Statutes, on
payment of duty equal to the tax i'm
posed thereon by the interal revenue
laws?
Third. Is it entitled upon return to
this country to the rights and privileges
Of imported merchandise, under the ware
house laws, chapter I, title "a, Revised
Statutes?
To the above statement you have, June
23d, added as a variation, the following.
which is also to be considered and made
an additional subject of discussion:
First. The exporters propose to comply
with the requirements of the law in re-
spect to the expectation of their whisky,
so that transportation and export bonds
shall be cancelled and the whisky eX-
ported and legally discharged from the
lien the government has upon 1t for inter-
nal revenue tax.
Second. Arrangements have been made
for the storage of the whisky i'll Bermuda
for period of twelve months and longer,
at the option of the owners, at advan-
tageous rates of storage in a climate
which, in a remarkable degree. facilitates
the ageing of the whisky.
Third. No arrangements have been made
for the return of said spirits, and that
some, or any part thereof, will not be
returned to this country except in re-
sponse to a demand of the trade, and that
expectations are being made for the pur-
pose of relieving the overloaded home
market, with the intention, in the due
course of business, of making a sale OF all
that can possibly be placed upon the
British and continental markets.
Fourth. 1t is the intention of the export
ers to preserve the identity of the spirits
exported, so that if market
is found in the United States for any por-
ton of it, it can be entered as domestic
distilled spirits reimported, upon which a
duty equal to the internal revenue tax
will be levied and collected. In the case
put by you in your first note, in which the
intention exists to carry the spirits now
at Newport News, Virginia, to Hamilton,
Bermuda, with the purpose, after landing
it there, of shipping it back to this coun-
try, l am of the opinion that there will
he no expectation, or consequent importa-
ton, so far, at all events, as to enti-
tie the owners to any privileges
connected with the expectation or impOr-
tatiOn. Whether they may subject them
selves to another class of provisions Of
the custom laws is obviously a different
1offor oud will no haCf daoi1od vx-ho,, n
specific case arises.
First.-The landing specified in the bond
referred to in your first question is by its
own words and by those of the statute
which requires it, ''a landing in the course
of an expectation" No landing at Ham
ilton, therefore, in the case put by you is
such landing, neither a landing nor any
other detail, statutory or other, can Obyi-
ate the necessity of that intention, which
is of the essence of expectation. Ii
therefore answers your first question in
the negative.
Second. Unjust add, of course, that the
case in view is. not within section 250O
for the purposes of your second question.
Third. Equally such spirits will not be
entitled to the rights and privileges re-
ferred to in question three.
now ask your attention to the effect OF
the variations of which you speak in your
second note. l premise that understand
these statements to affect cases in which
nothing else appears as to the intention OF
the owners IN shipping goods
out of the country, for if they accom-
pany cases in which the intention is what
you have already stated, / am Ofthe opinion
the main support of the theory of the
owners fails them, there being no eXpor-
tatiOns, so if the only intention is ship
ping them abroad for twelve months
storage in Bermuda, that also is incon-
sistent with the expectation. AS the legal
notion of emigration is going abroad with
the intention of not returning, so that O1
expectation is the severance of goods
from the mass of things belonging to this
| country with an intention of uniting
| them to masses of things belonging tC
some foreign country or other. All emi
grafton as above defined, is attended
with a chance that the intention NAV
| afterwards, after the actual removal, be
changed. This chance does not affect the
character of the act, nor do the circum-
stances OF an original speculation thai
such chance may occur, or even resold
ton that upon certain contemplated con.
tingency party about to emigrate will
| return-fOr example, upon a change O
| government, or upon loss of health, etc.
affect the validity of an emigration other
| wise bona fide. l suppose that the case
may often be the same with expectations
as above defined (V. 12), a con
tingent change in the state Of
market by which it may be
profitable to bring them back imme
| dlately. The bona lde purpose. as wei
| as the act, however, being to seek for
eign market, this would nevertheless be
an expectation, and upon the return, o.
| course, an importation, nor would suct
| expectation be defeated by the incident
| of preserving the indentity ''of the goods
but if the only purpose were to obtain fol
| a time the advantages which some foreign
| port gives for improving the spirits, anC
meanwhile escaping some home revenue
regulation upon domestic spirits, anC
acquiring after return some home revenue
| privilege appropriate to foreign spirits,
| submit that the statutory requisites fol
| such effect would be wanting.
| say statutory requisites, for / admit
| that if those requisites are duly complied
with, they must have their due statutory
| effect, and there would in such case be nc
| ground for suggesting fraud. / cannot
| say that the variations above amount tC
more than evidence of expectation, or on
| the contrary, the mere carrying of goods
| abroad is of course strong evidence thai
| they are being exported, whether proof OF
not is another matter. / suppose thai
| you do not wish mere discussion of the
weight or direction of the testimony
| contained in the variation.
If the question shall be hereafter in the
| courts upon the matter under considera
| tion, neither party will take any advan.
tage from what may be said upon then
| here, and, in closing, it NAV be well Il
| express what, no doubt, is understood bu
may be forgotten, ". 22) ''that the govern
| mpnt will not be bOund hereafter nv auy