Von Cotzhausen v. Nazro
| Decision Date | 09 April 1883 |
| Citation | 2 S.Ct. 503,27 L.Ed. 540,107 U.S. 215 |
| Parties | VON COTZHAUSEN v. NAZRO, Collector, etc., and another |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
F. W. Cotzhausen, for plaintiff in error.
Asst. Atty. Gen. Maury, for defendants in error.
This was a suit commenced before a justice of the peace by the plaintiff in error against the defendants for seizing and converting to their own use a flexible woolen scarf or shawl of the value of four dollars. It was removed into the circuit court of the United States by a writ of certiorari on the ground that Nazro was collector of customs of the United States for the port of Milwaukee, and that what was done in seizing the shawl was in the performance of his duty as such collector. On the trial in that court it appeared that the article in question came in a closed or sealed envelope by foreign mail from Germany, and the proper officer of the customs at Milwaukee, being notified to be present when the letter was delivered to and opened by plaintiff, seized it as forfeited under the customs laws of the United States. The jury being requested to make a special verdict, answered the questions propounded to them by the court as follows:
And on this verdict the circuit court rendered a judgment for defendants, with costs.
A bill of exceptions is signed embodying all the evidence in the case, from which it appears that there was no little ill-feeling in the case on the part of plaintiff and her attorneys, who refused to make application to the secretary of the treasury for a remission of the penalty, and that the seizure was reported to him and to the proper law officers by the collector. But as no ruling of the court was made on the admission or rejection of this evidence, and as no instructions of the court were given or asked, and no exceptions taken to any ruling of the court at the trial, the bill of exceptions is of no value here. The plea to the action was the general issue, and we must look alone to the special verdict to see if it justified the judgment of the court. The letter containing this scarf came from Germany to the United States under the international postal system, established by the treaty of Berne of October 9, 1874. The twenty-fifth article of the protocol to that treaty, which, under the signatures of the plenipotentiaries who negotiated it, is declared to be of the same force as if it was inserted in the treaty, provides that 'there shall not be admitted for conveyance by the post any letter or other packet which may contain either gold or silver money, jewels, precious articles, or any article whatever liable to custom duties.' 19 St. 604, art. 25.
While some attempt in argument is made to show that, either by treaty or by act of congress, books, patterns of merchandise, and perhaps other articles, may come through the foreign mail without liability to forfeiture, it is sufficient to say that the article seized in this case was not sent as a sample, nor is it a book or other article asserted to be admissible. Its introduction into the United States in this manner is, therefore, forbidden by the express provisions of the postal treaty under which it came, which is the law of the land, and is unauthorized by any act of congress. No question is made in this case that the shawl was dutiable, or that the amount of the duty claimed on it was the proper duty. Being dutiable, its introduction by mail into the United States was forbidden by the treaty. The revenue laws of the United States require that every owner or consignee of...
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U.S. v. Glasser
...value may thus be introduced from foreign countries." 431 U.S. at 620-21, 97 S.Ct. at 1980-81 (quoting Cotzhausen v. Nazro, 107 U.S. 215, 218, 2 S.Ct. 503, 504, 27 L.Ed. 540 (1883)). Other important constitutional concerns that may be raised by the random search of first-class letters witho......
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United States v. Ramsey
...Treaty of Berne, 19 Stat. 604, which prohibited the importation of letters which might contain dutiable items. Cotzhausen v. Nazro, 107 U.S. 215, 2 S.Ct. 503, 27 L.Ed. 540 (1883). Condemning the unsoundness of any distinction between entry by mail and entry by other means, Mr. Justice Mille......
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U.S. v. Alghazouli
...concealment, or sale knowing the merchandise had been imported "contrary to law."1 See, e.g., Von Cotzhausen v. Nazro, 107 U.S. 215, 218-19, 2 S.Ct. 503, 27 L.Ed. 540 (1883) (quoting the 1866 version of the In the decades following the 1866 Tariff Act, the Supreme Court made clear in two ca......
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U.S. v. Richards
...may stigmatize the individual searched, are unexpected and involve a greater invasion of privacy.5 See also Von Cotzhausen v. Nazro, 107 U.S. 215, 2 S.Ct. 503, 27 L.Ed. 540 (1883). In Von Cotzhausen the Supreme Court upheld a warrantless seizure of a woolen scarf by a customs collector. Alt......
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Pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court in the Criminal Law Field: 1976-1977 Term
...among searches based on the fact that the envelopes were mailed and not carried across the border was unsound. Cotzhausen v. Nazro, 107 U.S. 215 (1882). Rejecting respondent's contention that such a system would chill First Amendment rights, Justice Rehnquist stated that postal regulations ......