Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/130/284/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:39:14+00:00

Document:
The notice of dissatisfaction with the decision of the collector of customs as to the rate and amount of duties on imported goods, required by the Act of June 30, 1864, c. 171, § 14, Rev.Stat. § 2931, to be given "within ten days after the ascertainment and liquidation of the duties by the proper officers of the customs," may be given at any time after the entry of the goods and the collector's original estimate of the amount of duties, and before the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties as stamped upon the entry.
This was an action against the executors of a late collector of the port of New York to recover back duties exacted on goods imported by the plaintiffs in July, August, and September, 1873.
the ruling, and, after judgment for the defendants, sued out this writ of error.
The collector and the naval officer are required to make and to endorse upon the importer's entry a gross estimate of the amount of the duties on the merchandise to which the entry relates, and the merchandise cannot be lawfully landed until the amount of the estimated duties has been first paid or secured to be paid and a permit granted. Act March 2, 1799, c. 22, § 49, 1 Stat. 664; Rev.Stat. § 2869.
The merchandise must be appraised, or bonds given by the importer in double its estimated value, before it is delivered from the custody of the officers of the customs. If the collector deems any appraisement too low, he may order a new appraisement and may cause the duties to be charged accordingly. If the importer is dissatisfied with the appraisement, the collector must order another appraisement by two appraisers of a specified class, and if they disagree, decide between them, and the appraisement thus determined shall be final, and duties levied accordingly. Acts May 28, 1830, c. 147, §§ 2, 4, 4 Stat. 409, 410; August 30, 1842, c. 270, § 17, 5 Stat. 564; March 3, 1851, c. 38, § 3, 9 Stat. 630; Rev.Stat. §§ 2899, 2929, 2930.
"shall, within ten days after the ascertainment and liquidation of the duties by the proper officers of the customs, as well in cases of merchandise entered in bond as for consumption, give notice in writing to the collector on each entry, if dissatisfied with his decision, setting forth thirty days after the date of such ascertainment of his objection thereto, and shall, within thirty days after the date of such ascertainment and liquidation, appeal therefrom to the Secretary of the Treasury."
Act June 30, 1864, c. 171, § 14, 13 Stat. 214; Rev.Stat. § 2931.
The question is whether the period allowed for filing the protest or notice of dissatisfaction with the decision made by the collector at the time of the entry upon the rate and amount of duties extends from the time of that decision, or only from the date of the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties as stamped upon the entry, until ten days after that date; or, in other words, whether this period, which is admitted to expire ten days after the ascertainment and liquidation of the duties as so stamped, begins at the date of the stamp, or at the earlier date of the collector's original decision upon the estimated rate and amount of duties. The determination of this question will be aided by a brief consideration of the history of the law before the passage of the act of 1864.
Under the earlier acts of Congress, which contained no provision on this subject, an importer who had paid unauthorized duties under protest and in order to obtain possession of his goods might recover them back from the collector in an action of assumpsit for money had and received. Elliott v. Swartwout, 10 Pet. 137.
The Act of March 3, 1839, c. 82, § 2, requiring the collector to pay the money into the Treasury notwithstanding the protest of the importer, and giving the importer a right of appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, was held by this Court at January term, 1845, to take away the importer's right to bring an action of assumpsit. 5 Stat. 348; Cary v. Curtis, 3 How. 236.
"nor shall any action be maintained against any collector to recover the amount of duties so paid under protest unless the said protest was made in writing and signed by the claimant at or before the payment of said duties, setting forth distinctly and specifically the grounds of objection to the payment thereof."
"The protest is legally made when the duties are finally determined, and the amount assessed by the collector, and a protest before or at that time is sufficient notice, as it warns the collector, before he renders his account to the Treasury Department, that he will be held personally responsible if the portion disputed is not legally due, and that the claimant means to assert his rights in a court of justice."
Brune v. Marriott, Taney 132, 144. And his decision was affirmed by the judgment of this Court. Marriott v. Brune, 9 How. 619.
That judgment, though criticized in Warren v. Peaslee, 2 Curt. 231, was generally regarded and acted on as laying down a general rule establishing the validity of prospective protests. Steegman v. Maxwell, 3 Blatchford 365; Hutton v. Schell, 6 Blatchford 48, 55, and Fowler v. Redfield, there cited; Wetter v. Schell, 11 Blatchford 193, 196, and Chouteau v. Redfield, there cited.
"within ten days after such entry, give notice to the collector in writing of his dissatisfaction with such decision, setting forth therein distinctly and specifically his grounds of objection thereto,"
and should, "within thirty days after the date of such decision, appeal therefrom to the Secretary of the Treasury." 11 Stat. 195.
the rate and amount of duties being alone in question, to be governed by the act of 1845, requiring the protest to be filed at or before the time of paying the duties. Barney v. Watson, 92 U. S. 449.
"within ten days after the ascertainment and liquidation of the duties by the proper officers of the customs, give notice in writing to the collector on each entry if dissatisfied with his decision."
"In most cases, the amount, and in many cases the rate, could not be ascertained until after examination and appraisement, and hence a limitation to ten days from the time of entry would often, perhaps generally, deprive the party of any remedy at all."
92 U.S. 92 U. S. 453.
The act of 1864, by requiring the notice of dissatisfaction to be given on each entry, necessarily prevents such a notice as to any goods from being given before the entry thereof and precludes a prospective protest covering future entries or importations. Ullman v. Murphy, 11 Blatchford 354.
But the matter to which the notice of dissatisfaction applies is the decision of the collector on the rate and amount of the duties. The whole purpose of the notice is to give the collector opportunity to revise that decision, and that purpose is as well accomplished by giving the notice as soon as the goods have been entered and the duties estimated by the collector, as by postponing the giving of the notice until after the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties have been made and stamped upon the entry.
of the words as applied to the subject matter, be held to fix only the terminus ad quem, the limit beyond which the notice shall not be given, and not to fix the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties as the terminus a quo, or the first point of time at which the notice may be given.
In the case at bar, the result is that the notice on each entry, having been given after the collector's decision, and before the expiration of ten days from the date of finally stamping upon the entry the ascertainment and liquidation of the duties, was seasonable.
sanctioned by all the officers of the government, is of much importance in the decision of this question."
Our conclusion also accords with decisions of state courts expounding similar words in other statutes. Young v. The Orpheus, 119 Mass. 179; Atherton v. Corliss, 101 Mass. 40; Levert v. Read, 54 Ala. 529.
Some expressions of judges of this Court, not having this point before them, might seem to support the opposite conclusion, especially the language of Chief Justice Waite in Watt v. United States, 15 Blatchford 29, decided July 1, 1878, and that of Mr. Justice Strong in Westray v. United States, 18 Wall. 322. But in Watt's Case, the only question of time presented or considered related not to giving the collector notice of dissatisfaction with his decision, but to taking an appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the adjudication of the Chief Justice that the collector's decision upon the rate and amount of duties, if not duly appealed from, was final and conclusive in a case where the duties had not been paid to obtain possession of the goods, but were sued for by the United States, was overruled, with his concurrence, in United States v. Schlesinger, 120 U. S. 109. And in Westray's Case, the importer never gave any notice of dissatisfaction with the collector's decision or took any appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the only point adjudged was that the importer was not entitled to notice from the collector of his decision before being bound thereby or required to give a notice of dissatisfaction or take an appeal.
"the views of the department, legally expressed, so far as they appear in the record, recognize the true interpretation of the statutes to be that the protest must be filed after the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties."
given at any time after the collector's decision estimating the rate and amount of duty at the time of the entry of the goods, provided it was not given after ten days from the final ascertainment and liquidation of the duties as stamped upon the entry.
"and all the other prominent ports of the United States, under which protests and appeals had been recognized, both by the customs officers and by this department, as valid if filed at any time before the expiration of the time mentioned in the section of law cited."
And the old practice appears to have been since constantly recognized and acted on until 1886, when the Treasury Department again undertook to establish the opposite rule.
Judgment reversed and the case remanded to the circuit court with directions to set aside the verdict and order a new trial.

References: § 14
 § 2931
 § 49
 § 2869
 § 17
 § 3
 § 14
 § 2931
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