_ YANADA v. BPALD1NG• » 21
IANADA v. SPALDINGt
(Circuit Oourt, N. D. Illinois. May 26, 1885.)
1. Cusrorrs DUTIES--BTERCHANT Arrnsrsu. unnmn Saorron 2930, Rav. ST.
The appraisement of the merchant appraisers shall be final, and deemed to
oc the true value, and the duties shall be levied thereon accordingly, and an
importer is not estopped from going below his entry value on any single item
of his invoice; and duty should be assessed upon the value returned by the
merchant appraisers.
2. S.u1a—A1>n1·r1oNA1. DUTY or TYVENTY Pm: CENT.
Under the circumstances of this case penal duty was improperly assessed.'
At Law.
Percy L. Shuman and Jo. H. Defrccs, Jr., for plaintiff.
Chester M. Dawes, Asst. U. S. Atty., for defendant.
BLODGETT, J., (orally.) ln 1883 and 1884 plaintiff imported three
lots of Japanese "curios," which, as I understand from the proof, means
rare or curious goods of Japanese manufacture. These goods were
entered for duty upon the statement of their market value or cost “in
the country from which they were imported," but the collector of the
port of Chicago, not being satisfied with the value as entered by the
importer, caused the actual market value to be appraised, pursuant to
the provisions of section 2900, Bev. St.; whereupon the importer
gave notice of his dissatisfaction with the collector’s appraisal, and
called for the appointment of merchant appraisers, pursuant to the
provisions of section 2930, Bev. St. Such merchant appraisers were
duly appointed, and examined and appraised the goods; whereupon
the collector, upon their report, assessed an additional duty on such
appraised value of 20 per cent. ad valorem, on the ground that the ap-
praised value exceeded the entry value by 10 per cent. or more.
It appears from the proof that the merchant appraisers reported
many of the items of the goods in the invoices at prices below the
entry value, and that their appraisement, taken as a whole, did not
make the value of the goods equal to 10 per cent. in addition to the
entry value; but the collector, for the purpose of assessing the duty,
disregarded all the valuations of the items in the invoices by the mer-
chant appraisers, where they made the same lower than the entry
value, and took, as the basis of duty, the entry value on all goods ap-
praised below the entry value by the merchant appraisers, taking only
the merchant appraisers value where they had raised the valuation V
above that of the entry value; and upon this basis the appraised value
would exceed the entry value by 10 per cent. ‘
The only question in the case is whether the importer is bound by
his own entry value of each item in his invoice, or whether, when he
calls for merchant appraisers, they are to examine the goods and put
their valuation upon them without regard to the entry value. Sec-
tion 2930, by its last clause, declares that the appraisal—that is, the