Henry Brockholst Livingston

“ The claimant neglecting to take any one of these precautions, which could not have been the effect of ignorance, as it appears she is occasionally engaged in the importation of goods in the line of her business, leads, irresistibly, to the conclusion, that she intended to land these trunks without the payment of duties, and that this end was to be effected under the disguise of entering them as baggage and wearing apparel. ”

“ Although a mere intention to evade such payment be no cause of forfeiture, yet when a question arises, whether an act has been committed which draws after it this consequence, such intention will assist in dispelling some of the doubts in which the act itself might otherwise be involved, and will justify a Court in not putting on the conduct of the party, in relation to the act in question, an interpretation as favourable as under other circumstances it would feel disposed to do. ”

“ The only question we have to decide, is, whether the goods libelled, and which are admitted to be subject to duty, were entered as baggage or not. If they were, they must be condemned; if not, the claimant is entitled to restitution.
The claimant insists that the trunks seized were not included in her baggage entry, and that no act of her's, prior or subsequent to the entry, shows that it was her intention to cover them by it. Her baggage entry comprised 'seven trunks wearing apparel, sundry band-boxed and bedding, for Mrs. ”