Minturn v. United States

• Decision Date: 18 December 1882
• Citation: 27 L.Ed. 208,106 U.S. 437,1 S.Ct. 402
• Parties: MINTURN and others v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

106 U.S. 437

1 S.Ct. 402

27 L.Ed. 208

MINTURN and others v. UNITED STATES.

December 18, 1882.

Wm. M. Evarts, C. F. Southmayd, and Jos. H. Choate, for plaintiffs in error.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Maury, for defendant in error.

BLATCHFORD, J.

On August 2, 1865, the firm of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., being the owners of 580 packages of sugar, imported from abroad, entered them at the custom-house in New York by a warehouse entry, and thereupon the members of that firm, as principals, and one Clark, as surety, executed under their hands and seals and delivered to the collector a warehouse bond, conditioned that the bond should be void if the principals, 'or either of them, their or either of their heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns,' should, 'on or before the expiration of one year from the date of the importation' of the said goods, withdraw them, 'in the mode prescribed by law, from the public store or bonded warehouse' where they might be deposited at the port of New York, and pay to the collector for that port $23,787.99, 'or the true amount, when ascertained, of the duties imposed,' by laws then existing, or thereafter to be enacted, upon the said goods, etc. On the giving of the bond the sugars were placed in the public store and in the custody of the collector, as provided by the warehousing statutes. On August 8, 1865, the owners sold to Gibson, Early & Co. all the sugars, the same being still in warehouse, and held by the collector for duties, under said statutes. By the terms of the sale the goods were sold expressly subject to the payment of all duties thereon by Gibson, Early & Co., who assumed the payment of the duties as part of the agreed price of the goods on the sale, the price, less the duties so assumed, being paid in cash on delivery. The sellers made delivery of the goods in bond, subject to the duties, by writing and signing, on August 9, 1865, at the foot of the warehouse entry, the following consent: 'We hereby authorize Gibson, Early & Co. to with- draw the sugars described in this entry. GRINNELL, MINTURN & CO.'

It was not the custom to give any formal notice to the collector or any other officer of the customs of such sales in bond, nor was any such notice given in this case. The authority to withdraw, in the form above stated, would be and was presented to the collector in due course before the withdrawal could be made by the purchaser. The total weight of the sugars, as returned by the government weighers, was 755,621 pounds, upon which the proper duty, at three cents per pound, was liquidated at $22,668.63. On August 11, 1865, Gibson, Early & Co. withdrew for transportation to Cincinnati, under the said authority from Grinnell, Minturn & Co., 325,011 pounds of the sugar, and paid $9,750.33 duties thereon. On August 29, 1865, they withdrew for consumption, in like manner, 48,618 pounds, and paid $2,058.42 duties thereon.

Afterwards, and before September 4, 1865, they sold to one Camp the residue of the sugars, the same being then in warehouse, and being, by the terms of the sale, sold in bond, expressly subject to the payment of all duties thereon by Camp, who assumed the payment of said duties as part of the agreed price of the goods on the sale. A firm of custom-house brokers, Wylie & Wade, was employed by Camp to withdraw the sugars and to pay the duties thereon, and for that purpose was furnished by Camp with the amount of the duties, $10,859.88, in gold. On September 4, 1865, Gibson, Early & Co. made delivery to Camp of the residue of the sugars in bond, by writing and signing at the foot of the withdrawal entry made thereof by his said brokers, the following consent: 'We authorize Wylie & Wade to withdraw the goods described in this entry. GIBSON, EARLY & Co.'

No formal notice of this sale to Camp was given to the collector or any other officer of the customs. This last authority to withdraw was presented in due course by said brokers when they desired to withdraw the goods. This was done on September 4, 1865, when they made a withdrawal entry of the residue of the sugars, the weight of which was 361,996 pounds. The duty at three cents per pound was $10,859.88. But the collector demanded as duties only $9,352.89, being at the rate of three cents per pound on 311,763 pounds, leaving due as duties, $1,506.99. The goods were delivered to the brokers and were of greater value than the duties chargeable on them. This was done without the knowledge or consent of Grinnell, Minturn & Co. The first knowledge or notice they had of the withdrawal without the payment of full duties was a notice from the collector, December 6, 1867, as to the amount so remaining unpaid. Before that time the brokers had become insolvent, and Gibson, Early & Co. became insolvent before the trial of this suit. The United States having brought suit on the bond against the obligors in it, to recover the $1,506.99, with interest, a jury was duly waived, and the court, having found the foregoing facts, found the following conclusions of law:

(1) That the facts constituted no bar to a recovery; (2) that if the defendants were to be regarded as sureties, after the transfer of the title to the property in bond, instead of principals, they stood in no better position; (3) that the laches of the custom-house officers, in delivering the goods without collecting the whole of the duties, could not affect the plaintiffs, as the United States were never bound by the laches of their agents, nor could the defendants set up such laches as a discharge of their obligation; (4) that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment.

The defendants excepted to each of said conclusions of law, a judgment was rendered for the plaintiffs for $3,096.11, and the defendants brought this writ of error.

The court belowalso found, as facts,——

'That it was the established and uniform usage of trade in New York, at the times of said sales and deliveries and long before, for importers to make sales of imported goods, which were in warehouse, in bond, the purchaser on such sales assuming the payment of the duties thereon, and being allowed and credited by the seller with the amount of the duties so assumed, as so much paid on account of or deducted from what would otherwise have been the purchase price, and for the seller to make delivery of said goods in bond, by signing a written consent to the withdrawal of said goods by the purchaser, and it was also in accordance with such usage and custom for successive sales and deliveries of goods in bond to be made, on similar terms and in the same manner, so long as any of such goods remained in warehouse, the last purchaser withdrawing the goods under the written consent so received by him upon and as the delivery thereof, and paying the duties thereon on such withdrawal; that the said custom and usage were, at the times aforesaid, well known and understood, and the established and settled practice at the...