Goldhofer Fahrzeugwerk GmbH & Co. v. United States

885 F.2d 858 (1989)

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Goldhofer Fahrzeugwerk GmbH & Co. v. United States

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
885 F.2d 858 (1989)

Facts

Goldhofer Fahrzeugwerk GmbH & Company (Goldhofer) (plaintiff) imported semitrailers from Germany through the port of Norfolk, Virginia. Due to a clerical error, the United States Customs Service (customs) (defendant) entered the wrong mailing address for Goldhofer in its files. When Goldhofer’s entry was liquidated, customs posted a bulletin notice of liquidation and also sent a courtesy copy by mail, which never reached Goldhofer because it was mailed to the wrong address. Upon discovering the mistake, customs issued a new courtesy copy to Goldhofer, sending it to the right address. Goldhofer filed a protest 179 days after the first notice of liquidation, but 88 days after the second notice of liquidation that was mailed to the right address. Customs denied the protest because it was not filed within 90 days of the original liquidation as required by law. Goldhofer challenged customs’ denial, arguing that failure to provide courtesy notice of the liquidation violated constitutional-due-process requirements, thus invalidating the first liquidation notice. The United States Court of International Trade entered summary judgment in favor of customs, and Goldhofer appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Michel, J.)

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