Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/324/83/
Timestamp: 2017-07-28 19:07:49
Document Index: 416141750

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 522', '§ 372', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 624', '§ 1624', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 1514', '§ 522', '§ 372', '§ 522', '§ 242', '§ 3', '§ 624', '§ 1624', '§ 522', '§ 522', '§ 402', '§ 1402', '§ 522', '§ 402', '§ 1303', '§ 1351', '§ 249', '§ 3', '§ 248', '§ 242', '§ 251', '§ 66', '§ 66', '§ 161', '§ 22']

BARR v. UNITED STATES. | LII / Legal Information Institute
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324 U.S. 83 (65 S.Ct. 522, 89 L.Ed. 765)
BARR v. UNITED STATES.
Argued: Dec. 15, 1944.
Decided: Feb. 5, 1945.
[HTML] Mr. J. Bradley Colburn, of New York City, for petitioner. at Mr. Ralph F. Fuchs, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
The question in this case is the proper rate at which the currency of the invoice of imported goods should be converted into United States dollars under § 522(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930. 46 Stat. 739, 31 U.S.C. 372(c), 31 U.S.C.A. § 372(c).
At all times prior to March 25, 1940, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York pursuant to its authority under § 522(c) certified daily to the Secretary of the Treasury one buying rate for the pound sterling. When the present war between Great Britain and Germany was declared, the British Government inaugurated a detailed system for controlling foreign exchange. It required among other things that all persons resident in the United Kingdom sell to the British Treasury at prices fixed by it all foreign currency which they were entitled to sell, and prohibited, with certain exceptions, exportion of foreign currency from the United Kingdom and the purchase and sale of foreign currency in the United Kingdom from or to any person other than an authorized dealer and at prices fixed by the British Treasury. On March 7, 1940, an Order in Council, effective March 25, 1940, was issued by the British Government which provided that certain classes of merchandise
(whiskey, furs, tin, rubber and jute) might not be exported from the United Kingdom to the United States and certain other countries except when payment had been or would be made to persons resident in the United Kingdom in specified currencies. These currencies included United States dollars or English pounds purchased in the United Kingdom after September 3, 1939, from an authorized dealer in foreign currency. Authorized dealers sold English pounds only at the rate of $4.035, prescribed by the British Treasury, from January 8, 1940, to September 30, 1942, when the present case was tried.
On March 19, 1940, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York notified the Secretary that because of the order of the British Government of March 7, 1940, it would certify, beginning March 25, 1940, two rates for the pound sterlingone to be designated as the 'free' rate, the other as the 'official' rate. The latter was the rate fixed by the British Treasury. On April 15, 1940, the Secretary of the Treasury notified the collectors of customs that until further notice he would publish only the 'official' rate; and he directed them to use that rate for assessing and collecting duties on imported merchandise whenever it varied by more than 50 per cent from the value of the pound proclaimed by the Secretary under § 522(a) of the Act.
T.D. 50134, 75 Treas.Dec. 370, 371, 5 Fed.Reg. 1447.
We would depart from that scheme if we read § 522(c) as saying that on a given date only one buying rate for a specified foreign currency could be certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or proclaimed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Dual or multiple exchange rates have resulted in recent years from measures for the control and restriction of foreign exchange and export transactions.
In the present case the British Government fixed the 'official' rate for the purchase of specified commodities for export. One who purchased woolens for export need not acquire pounds at that rate. A lower rate was available and was indeed taken advantage of by petitioner when he purchased pounds to pay for the woolens. If the higher 'official' rate is used in the valuation of the woolens, the cost of the goods will be distorted and an inflated value for customs purposes will be placed upon them. Such a result would be quite out of harmony with the history of these statutes and should be avoided unless the result is plainly required by the language of § 522(c). We do not think it is.
We may assume that the dual or multiple exchange rates which have emerged were not in contemplation when the 1930 Act was passed. As we have noted, they are parts of rather recent measures for the control and restriction of foreign exchange and export transactions. But if Congress has made a choice of language which fairly brings a given situation within a statute, it is unimportant that the particular application may not have been contemplated by the legislators. People of Puerto Rico v. Shell Co., 302 U.S. 253, 257, 58 S.Ct. 167, 169, 82 L.Ed. 235; Browder v. United States, 312 U.S. 335, 339, 61 S.Ct. 599, 602, 85 L.Ed. 862, and cases cited. Sec. 522(c) contains no language indicating that the Secretary of the Treasury has any function to perform except the publication of any buying rate which is certified. The determination of the rate is left exclusively to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It alone is given discretion in computing it. The duty of the Secretary to publish the certified rate is as clear as the duty of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to determine and certify it. It is true that § 522(c) speaks only of the 'buying rate'. And that use of the singular rather than the plural is stressed by respondent. We may note, however, in passing that § 1 of the Revised Statutes, 1 U.S.C. 1, 1 U.S.C.A. § 1, provides that 'words importing the singular number may extend and beapplied to several persons or things.' Beyond that is the fact that we are construing a provision of a tariff act designed, as we have said, to value imports for customs purposes by means of the buying rate of the invoice currency. The use of the singular is not inappropriate since there is a buying rate for the foreign exchange used to purchase each separate import. We assume that the 'official' rate was the all-inclusive rate and could have been used in payment of exported goods of all kinds. But § 522(c) means to us that that buying rate is to be used which is in fact applicable to the particular transaction. To look to other transactions for the buying rate is to make a valuation of a wholly hypothetical import not a valuation of the actual one before the collector of customs. Congress could, of course, choose any standard of valuation, for the purposes of the assessment and collection of duties. But Congress in this situation endeavored to provide a flexible and realistic, not an arbitrary, standard. We can indeed see no difference in principle between the use of one of several rates for the currency of a single country and the use of one of several rates each of which is for the currency of a different country. In each different rates are used to ascertain the value of specific imports. The language of § 522(c) read against the background of these statutes indicates to us that Congress undertook to provide in each case the rate which gives the closest approximation to the value in dollars of the imported merchandise. That purpose would be thwarted if in the circumstances of this case only one buying rate could be used in making the valuation of the goods. The application of the 'official' rate to this particular transaction would assume that petitioner imported whiskey, furs, tin, rubber, or jute rather than woolens. The valuation of the woolens would be inflated and a higher duty would be paid than a fair reading of § 522(c) necessitates.
Reliance for the other conclusion is also placed on the general authority given the Secretary over the collection of duties on imports
and over collectors of customs.
It is also pointed out that § 624 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1624 provides that 'In addition to the specific powers conferred by this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act.'
But these provisions merely implement authority which is granted the Secretary and make clear the existence of authority which otherwise might be only implied. They may not be used to detract from the express authority given the Federal Reserve Bank of New York under § 522(c). But this result is criticized on the ground that it interferes with the control of foreign exchange, which fiscal function has been entrusted to the Secretary not to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It hardly need be pointed out in reply, however, that our decision, like § 522(c), is concerned only with the assessment and collection of duties upon imports through the use of a formula which Congress designed. If the use of that formula under the changed conditions of these war years is disadvantageous or undesirable, Congress, of course, can change it. But we cannot assume that Congress did not mean what it said when it selected the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rather than the Secretary to perform a restricted function on this single phase of the complicated foreign exchange problem.
Nor is there substance in the argument that the Secretary's action in publishing only one of the rates certified by the Bank is non-reviewable. Sec. 522(c) plainly gives discretion to the Bank to determine the buying rate. And for the reasons stated we cannot say that only one buying rate must be determined and certified.
The exercise of the Bank's discretionary power under § 522(c) is in the category of administrative or executive action which this Court held non-reviewable in Cramer v. Arthur, supra, and in Hadden v. Merritt, 115 U.S. 25, 27, 28, 5 S.Ct. 1169, 1170, 29 L.Ed. 333. And see United States v. George S. Bush & Co., 310 U.S. 371, 380, 60 S.Ct. 944, 946, 84 L.Ed. 997. But the function of the Secretary in this regard is purely ministerial and is to be contrasted to other situations in which the Secretary is exercising discretionary authority. Cf. Boske v. Comingore, 177 U.S. 459, 20 S.Ct. 701, 44 L.Ed. 846. The power to publish the certified rate may not be exercised in such a way as to defeat the method of assessment which Congress has provided. Cf. Campbell v. United States, 107 U.S. 407, 2 S.Ct. 759, 27 L.Ed. 592. Congress has granted judicial review of the decisions of the collector including the legality of the orders and findings entering into the protested decision. Secs. 514517, 19 U.S.C.A. §§ 15141517. If the decision of the collector contravenes the statutory scheme and disregards rights which Congress has bestowed, the fact that he acts pursuant to the directions of the Secretary does not save his decision from review. Campbell v. United States, supra. We think that the use of the 'official' rate of exchange in assessing and collecting duties upon these imports transcended the authority of the collector and of the Secretary and that the 'free' rate of exchange certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York should have been used.
It is finally said that if more than one buying rate may be made applicable to imports from one country,
confusion and complexity in administration of the Tariff Act will result. But that showing would have to be far more clear and the meaning of the Act much more dubious for us to give those administrative considerations weight in the interpretative process.
To dispose of the case on the assumption that it merely involves enforcement of a Congressional policy for assuring approximate accuracy in determining the true dollar value of a particular importation is to throw the significance of the case out of focus. The problem, as I see it, is whether Congress by § 522(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, 46 Stat. 590, 739, 31 U.S.C. 372(c), 31 U.S.C.A. § 372(c), prohibited the Secretary of the Treasury from safeguarding the public interest as he did, in relation to dislocations in the money markets following the outbreak of the war and to their repercussions both upon our domestic economy and our international relations. That the Treasury's instruction to the collectors of customs to assess tariff duties on the basis of the sterling rate fixed by the British Government was not an ordinary Treasury order affecting the collection of revenue is attested by the fact that the instruction was the result of a conference of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Agriculture. See New York Times, April 17, 1940, p. 4, col. 5; The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, April 20, 1940, Vol. 150, Pt. 2, pp. 2478-79.
It is not suggested that apart from § 522(c) this Government could not protect its interests in relation to the abnormal currency situations precipitated by the war through such action as the Secretary of the Treasury here took. The wide duties of financial supervision possessed by the Secretary by virtue of his office and the broad powers implied in various provisions of law, see for instance: 5 U.S.C. 242, 5 U.S.C.A. § 242, 19 U.S.C. 3, 19 U.S.C.A. § 3; § 624 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 46 Stat. 590, 759, 19 U.S.C. 1624, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1624, and Boske v. Comingore, 177 U.S. 459, 20 S.Ct. 701, 44 L.Ed. 846, would give him ample warrant to fix a rate for dollar conversions of foreign currencies on a uniform basis reflecting the dominant value among multiple values of a foreign currency and one not subject to manipulations or influences adverse to our interests.
Withdrawal of this power of the Secretary of the Treasury implies a radical curtailment of his historic and appropriate authority to protect the nation's fiscal interests. If it chose, of course Congress could so curtail the Secretary's powers. But such an important change in the executive responsibility for our fiscal affairs ought to be disclosed through some unequivocal Congressional expression. To find such destructive force in § 522(c) is to attribute to it a potency not designed by Congress. It is conceded that in the legislation which is now § 522(c) Congress was concerned solely with fluctuations in a single exchange rate, a problem thrown up after the First World War. And so Congress designated the Federal Reserve Bank as a fact-finding agency to ascertain the most durable among fluctuating quotations. But multiple rates for a single currencywith their effects upon the flow of goods and upon international economic relations and the opportunities they afford for highly organized manipulations of exchangepresent a totally different problem. That problem, as is admitted by the Federal Reserve Bank appearing before us as amicus curiae, was not at all in the contemplation of Congress. That problem was not dealt with by Congress because it did not confront Congress. As a problem it did not emerge until, in 1940, the present war confronted the Federal Reserve Bank and the Secretary of the Treasury with it.
For the selection by the Secretary of the Treasury of an exchange rate in a situation like the one before us has implications far beyond translating into dollars the value at which a particular importer actually settled for the foreign price of his goods. The selection of the governing rate of exchange in the case of multiple rates affects at least three very important phases of our international economic relations. By § 402 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 46 Stat. 590, 708, 19 U.S.C. 1402, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1402, in the assessment of ad valorem duties it is necessary to ascertain the foreign market value, which normally means the foreign home value. Commodities subject to the 'official' rate and commodities available through 'free' sterling may well have an identical home value and yet, according to the contention of the importer, one valuation would have to be reached according to § 522(c) and another according to § 402. Again, the Secretary of the Treasury may impose countervailing duties whenever he finds that imported goods enjoy a bounty, direct or indirect. Section 303 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 46 Stat. 590, 687, 19 U.S.C. 1303, 19 U.S.C.A. § 1303 Such bounties may readily take the form of favorable exchange rates. An unwarrantably rigid denied at the Secretary of the determination of an exchange rate which in substance corresponds to the realties of international exchange may force him to exercise the penalizing power of imposing countervailing duties. Finally, foreign exchange rates affect the fruitful use of foreign trade agreements. Section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by 48 Stat. 943, 19 U.S.C. 1351 et seq., 19 U.S.C.A. § 1351.
'The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the superintendence of the collection of the duties on imports as he shall judge best.' Rev.Stat. § 249, 19 U.S.C. 3, 19 U.S.C.A. § 3. And see Rev.Stat. § 248, 5 U.S.C. 242, 5 U.S.C.A. § 242.
'The Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe forms of entries, oaths, bonds, and other papers, and rules and regulations not inconsistent with law, to be used in carrying out the provisions of law relating to raising revenue from imports, or to duties on imports, or to warehousing, and shall give such directions to collectors and prescribe such rules and forms to be observed by them as may be necessary for the proper execution of the law.' Rev.Stat. § 251, 19 U.S.C., Supp. III, § 66, 19 U.S.C.A. § 66. And see Rev.Stat. § 161, 5 U.S.C. 22, 5 U.S.C.A. § 22.
The case is therefore different from Collector v. Richards, 23 Wall. 246, 23 L.Ed. 95. In that case the Director of the Mint certified two values of the francone under the provisions of the Act of March 2, 1873, 17 Stat. 602, the other under the Act of May 22, 1846, 9 Stat. 14. The Director of the Mint was uncertain whether the latter act had been repealed by the former. The Secretary proclaimed the rate estimated by the Director under the 1873 Act. This Court sustained a collection of duties on that basis, holding that the provisions of the 1873 Act controlled. Thus the decision was that only one value of the franc controlled, not that the power of the Secretary to proclaim the value included the power to choose between two available ones.