Noah Haynes Swayne

“ It would seem clear that the goods cannot be forfeited by reason of the act of a consignee or agent of the owner, without proof of such acts by such agent or consignee as would render them or one of them liable to be punished criminally under the § 3. And it will not be pretended that an agent or consignee can be punished by imprisonment for 'effecting an entry of any goods' for less than value, by using a false or fraudulent foreign invoice, without proof that he did it knowingly. ”

“ The officer should have gone to Rheims for wholesale prices for foreign shipment, and not have confined his inquiries to the brilliant shops of an inland capital, so far away from all the highways of foreign commerce. It cannot be maintained that the great amount and average quality of wines sent for wholesale disposition to a new country like California should be presumed by the court to be of the quality one might find in Paris, that great resort of the rich, the extravagent, and the fastidious from all the nations of the globe. ”

“ The term 'place,' as used in the first section of the act of 1863, does not mean any locality more limited than the country where the goods are bought or manufactured. The standard to be applied is their value in the principal markets of that country. The commerce into which they enter is international, and the language of the statute must be construed in a large and liberal spirit. Proof of the value of the wines at Paris, if there was no other evidence upon the subject, was sufficient to enable the jury to arrive at the proper conclusion. ”

“ Farwell, not a manufacturer of nor dealer in champagne, no expert in its prices or qualities, and neither prepared nor intending to deal bon a fide, or in fact at all, is sent abroad as a detective to ascertain the market value of it at the place of its manufacture. He visits Paris, but not Rheims, where the manufacture is, at any time. He gets Prices-Current of the sorts and in the way already commented on. They are never produced till the moment of trial, when the claimant, five thousand miles away, cannot possibly answer them ”

“ The value of wines at Rheims should have been proved under a commission sent there, in which experienced merchants could have sworn as to the 'specific fact' of the value of champagne, at the date of the invoice. How much of the testimony objected to rests on the credit to be given to Mr. Farwell? Does not his whole story rest on the veracity and competency of some other person, who gave him the Prices-Current, and on general rumors? [5]
Prices-Current are no doubt often admitted in evidence. ”

“ All that need be done is to send some subaltern officer abroad, or to solicit the services of some needy tourist, who can, with little trouble and without departing from the places of fashionable resort, note in his diary the hearsay of hotels and cafes, and fill his portfolio with bills of fare and Prices-Current, touching, as near as may be prudent and convenient, the matters, places, and times in controversy ”

“ The answer would plainly be mere hearsay testimony, and open to every objection, substantial and technical, which can apply to any such testimony. It does not appear of whom, or when, or even in what part of Paris the report he is allowed to relate was heard.
(2.) The only object of it, if admissible, would be to show that if the difference in price between Moet & Chandon's wine, or Mumm's wine, at Paris and at Rheims, is any given percentage, that therefore only the same difference exists as to that quality of Eugene Cliquot's wine now in controversy. But the inference is unwarranted. ”

“ Mumm, Heidsick, Jaqueson, and the family of Cliquot: most of whom reside about here, but who with all the leading champagne manufacturers have agencies in Paris; they themselves not commonly attending to details of the 'commerce:' though perhaps responding-some of them from the spot, to communications addressed to them on the subject of their wines; referring also sometimes to their agents at Paris or abroad. [1] Different manufacturers supply different countries, Eugene Cliquot sending large quantities to the United States, Jaqueson to Russia: different countries having different tastes. ”

“ However false an invoice may be, and however fraudulent the intent with which it may have been made, no proceedings can be based thereon, and no consequences are declared to follow under the § 1 of the act of 1863.
(3.) The 'owner, consignee, and agent' seem to be treated as distinct persons (at any rate, as that is the construction most unfavorable to the claimants, it will be that especially considered) , so that the act of either may cause a forfeiture of the goods. ”

“ In France less, but still more than the price expected. The theory of the practice is said to be that, in coming down from his first demand, the trader shows that he has a special esteem for his particular customer; but, whatever be the cause, the fact that a price is almost universally asked higher than will be taken from a bon a fide customer,-a customer who with the cash in his hand comes to buy,-is notorious. ”

“ Besides other evidence, the fact was proved by the deposition of Eugene Cliquot, the claimant.
Whatever is done by an agent, in reference to the business in which he is at the time employed, and within the scope of his authority, is said or done by the principal, and may be proved as well in a criminal as in a civil case, in all respects, as if the principal were the actor or the speaker. ”

“ It would be a singular result if, in a prosecution upon an information containing counts upon this and later statutes in pari materi a, the rule should apply to a part of the counts and not to others. The seventieth and seventy-first sections must be construed together. They both look to future and further legislation. In all the changes which the revenue laws have undergone neither has been repealed. The authority to seize out of the district of the seizing officer, and this rule of onus probandi have always been regarded as permanent features of the revenue system of the country. ”

“ Farwell could find no other persons acting as agents for them. Cliquot, in fact, in a deposition of his, taken at a later date, stated that this firm 'was the agent for the sale of the champagne manufactured by him.' Farwell examined the wines which Petit & Son had for sale, inquired the price per bottle, and also the wholesale prices of these, and of the different qualities of Cliquot's wines, for shipment to England ”

“ Sparkling wines at very law prices for exportation. Return of duties for the outside of Paris, or for foreign ports.
He was informed, however, that he could obtain the wines for exportation upon better terms from the manufacturer at Rheims. The highest prices wines shown him were put up and labelled precisely like the best of the Eugene Cliquot wines imported into San Francisco. Farwell inquired of several agencies for champagne at wholesale for exportation, and the agents uniformly stated their prices. ”

“ The difference is great in all countries. It is very great in all the countries of Southern Europe, especially with foreigners, most of all English and Americans. In Italy two prices are usually asked. ”