Schaper Mfg. Co. v. Regan
Decision Date | 16 June 1983 |
Docket Number | Court No. 83-3-00333. |
Citation | 566 F. Supp. 894,5 CIT 266 |
Parties | SCHAPER MANUFACTURING CO., DIVISION OF KUSAN, INC., Plaintiff, v. The Honorable Donald T. REGAN, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and the Honorable William Von Raab, Commissioner of Customs, Defendants, and The Milton D. Myer Company, Intervenor. |
Court | U.S. Court of International Trade |
Plaia, Schaumberg & deKieffer, Tom M. Schaumberg and Alice A. Kipel, Washington, D.C., Romney, Golant, Martin, Disner & Ashen, Joseph Golant, Robert M. Ashen, Thomas D. Phillips, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff.
J. Paul McGrath, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Joseph I. Liebman, Atty. in Charge, International Trade Field Office, Commercial Litigation Branch, New York City, Deborah E. Rand, Locust Valley, N.Y., for defendants.
Buell, Blenko, Ziesenheim & Beck, Lynn J. Alstadt, Pittsburgh, Pa., for intervenor.
In the instant proceedings the defendants seek to dismiss the above-entitled action for lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter.
The facts set forth by the court in a prior order granting the plaintiff a preliminary injunction have been reincorporated in part herein in connection with the court's consideration of the defendants' motion to dismiss.
The plaintiff is the owner of registered copyrights in certain toy vehicles, which said copyrights pursuant to customs regulations were recorded with the customs service.
Subsequent to the recording of the copyrights in question, the plaintiff was informed by the customs service that 125 cases of imported merchandise were being held by the Port Director of Customs, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which were suspected to be piratical of plaintiff's copyrighted toy vehicles. Pursuant to customs regulations plaintiff demanded the imported toy vehicles be excluded from entry into the United States and posted a bond required by the customs service in the amount of $20,448.00.
Subsequently, on November 5, 1982, plaintiff was further informed that the Port Director of Customs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was holding two additional shipments of imported merchandise which, in turn, were suspected of being piratical copies of plaintiff's copyrighted toy vehicles.
With respect to the latter shipments designated as customs entry XX-XXXXXX-X and customs entry XX-XXXXXX-X, the plaintiff again demanded their exclusion from entry into the United States and posted bonds in the respective sums of $83,794 and $14,778 as determined and required by the customs service.
Some of the articles contained in the respective imported shipments were piratical copies of the plaintiff's toy vehicles and other articles therein were non-piratical copies. In response to the request of plaintiff that separate bonds be filed with the customs service for each model of a toy vehicle imported on a model by model basis, the customs service at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, advised the plaintiff that only one bond per shipment is permitted. Plaintiff requested in writing the withdrawal of two bonds previously filed by it with the customs service in the amount of $83,794 and $14,778, respectively. On December 29, 1982, as required by 19 C.F.R. § 133.43(c)(4), plaintiff filed in writing a statement agreeing to hold the customs service harmless for any consequence of returning the bonds and the release of the detained articles.
Despite the provision contained in 19 C.F.R. § 133.43(c)(4) that the District Director "shall require" both the copyright owner and the importer to sign such a hold harmless agreement, the importer, Milton D. Myer Co., refused to file the required statement.
In a communication by customs under date of February 22, 1983 together with a ruling issued on said date, plaintiff was advised:
In a communication with an officer of the port district at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plaintiff's counsel was informed that the customs service would transmit to the importer the three bonds hereinbefore referred to and posted by the plaintiff at such time as notice of re-export of the vehicles determined to have infringed on the copyright of the plaintiff had been received by the customs service.
A temporary restraining order with respect to the bonds in question was made and entered by this court under date of March 4, 1983, and a preliminary injunction enjoining customs and the Secretary of the Treasury from releasing these bonds was subsequently entered. ___ CIT ___, Slip Op. 83-17 (March 21, 1983).
Subsequent to the entering of the preliminary injunction, customs ruled that approximately half of the subject imports violated plaintiff's copyright and half did not. Pursuant to an order of this court under date of May 24, 1983, and by agreement of the parties, including the Milton D. Myer Company, importer of the goods in question, liquidation of the non-infringing articles was stayed pending a determination by this court on defendants' motion to dismiss this case based on this court's alleged lack of jurisdiction. The articles found by customs to have violated plaintiff's copyright have been re-exported.
The defendants predicate their motion to dismiss upon two grounds:
In determining whether a cause of action might be embraced by the jurisdictional grant bestowed upon this court by the Congress, it is necessary that the gravamen of the complaint be determined. Although the complaint in the instant action alleges jurisdictional support under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) and 17 U.S.C. §§ 602, 603, from the allegations contained in the complaint as well as from all proceedings had before this court, it is manifest that the thrust of the grievance alleged and the relief sought by the plaintiff relates to the regulations promulgated by customs and their administration and enforcement by that agency.
The customs regulations under which plaintiff's principal claim for relief is sought provide in pertinent part:
The foregoing regulations derive their authority from the delegation granted by the Congress in 19 U.S.C. §§ 66 and 1624. The provisions thereof are, in part, of particular pertinence:
It is well established that a regulation adopted by a government agency under authority of an act of Congress has the force and effect of a Federal law when it is asserted as a basis of Federal jurisdiction....
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...regulations with respect to counterfeit, simulating and gray-market goods). 9. H & H cites to Schaper Manufacturing Co., Division of Kusan, Inc. v. Regan, 5 CIT 266, 566 F.Supp. 894 (1983), but that case does not compel a different conclusion. In Schaper, the plaintiff posted a bond upon de......
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