CHAPTER SEVEN

The Bond and Warehouse System

§ 5638. (R. S. § 2954.) Lease of warehouses authorized.

The Secretary of the Treasury may, at his discretion, lease such warehouses as he deems necessary for the storage of unclaimed

goods, or goods which for any other reason are required by law to be stored by the Government.

Res. Feb. 14, 1850, No. 4, § 1, 9 Stat. 560.

The establishment of bonded warehouses for the storage and cleansing of imported rice intended for exportation was authorized by Act March 24, 1874, c. 65, post, § 5671.

Provisions for manufacturing goods for export in bonded warehouses, and for smelting works as bonded warehouses, were made by the Underwood Tariff Act of Oct. 3, 1913, c. 16, § IV, M, N, post, §§ 5672, 5673, which superseded similar provisions made by preceding tariff acts.

§ 5639. (R. S. § 2955.) Restrictions.

No leases shall be entered into by the United States for any warehouses for the storage of warehoused or unclaimed merchandise at any port where there may exist any private bonded warehouses: Provided, That such buildings may be leased as may be required for the use of appraisers for the examination and appraisal of imported merchandise at ports where such officers are provided by law; and collectors may lease, for short periods, at any of the smaller ports, such stores as may be required for custom-house purposes, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 7, 10 Stat. 272.

Other provisions relating to the leasing or hiring of buildings, etc., for the use of appraisers, or by collectors, for short periods, for custom house purposes, at small ports, were made by R. S. § 2953, ante, § 5637.

Customs officers were prohibited from owning or being interested in bonded warehouses by Act June 22, 1874, c. 391, § 24, post, § 5683.

§ 5640. (R. S. § 2956.) Use of leased warehouses.

All warehouses hired by the collector, naval officer, or surveyor, shall be on public account, and paid for by the collector as such, and shall be appropriated exclusively to the use of receiving foreign merchandise, subject, as to the rates of storage, to regulation by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Act March 3, 1841, c. 35, § 6, 5 Stat. 432.

§ 5641. (R. S. § 2957.) Limitation of leases.

No collector or other officer of the customs shall enter into any contract or agreement for the use of any building to be thereafter erected as a public store or warehouse, and no lease of any building to be so used shall be taken for a longer period than three years, nor shall rent be paid, in whole or in part, in any case, in advance. Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 7, 10 Stat. 272.

§ 5642. (R. S. § 2958.) Cellars, vaults, and yards.

Cellars and vaults of stores for the storage of wines and distilled spirits only, and yards for the storage of coal, mahogany, and other woods and lumber, may, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, be constituted bonded warehouses for the storage of such articles under the same regulations and conditions as required in the storage of other merchandise; the cellars or vaults shall be exclusively appropriated to the storage of wines or distilled spirits, and shall have no opening or entrance except the one from the street, on which separate and different locks of the custom-house and the owner or proprietor of the cellars or vaults shall be placed. Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 1, 10 Stat. 271.

§ 5643. (R. S. § 2959.) Storage of grain.

Parts of such building as shall be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury may be bonded for the storage of grain, under such rules, regulations, and conditions as he may prescribe for the security of the revenue.

Act July 18, 1866, c. 201, § 37, 14 Stat. 187.

§ 5644. (R. S. § 2960.) Private warehouses.

Private warehouses shall be used solely for the purpose of storing warehoused merchandise, and shall be previously approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, and be placed in charge of a proper officer of the customs, who, together with the owner and proprietor of the warehouse, shall have the joint custody of all the merchandise stored in the warehouse; and all the labor on the merchandise so stored must be performed by the owner or proprietor of the warehouse, under the supervision of the officer of the customs in charge of the same, at the expense of the owner or proprietor.

Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 1, 10 Stat. 270.

§ 5645. (R. S. § 2961.) Bond of proprietor.

Before any of the stores or cellars, owned or occupied by private individuals, shall be used as a warehouse for merchandise imported by other merchants or importers, the owner, occupant, or lessee thereof shall enter into bond, in such sums and with such sureties as may be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, exonerating and holding harmless the United States and its officers from or on account of any risk, loss, or expense of any kind or description, connected with or arising from the deposit or keeping of the merchandise in the warehouses; and all imports deposited in any public or private warehouse authorized by this Title shall be at the sole and exclusive risk and expense of the owner or importer.

Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 3, 10 Stat. 271.

§ 5646. (R. S. § 2962.) Deposit of merchandise at option of own

ers.

Any merchandise subject to duty, with the exception of perishable articles, also gunpowder, and other explosive substances, except fire-crackers, which shall have been duly entered and bonded for warehousing, in conformity with existing laws, may be deposited, at the option of the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, at his expense and risk, in any public warehouse owned or leased by the United States, or in the private warehouse of the importer, the same being used exclusively for the storage of warehoused merchandise of his own importation or to his consignment, or in a private warehouse used by the owner, occupant, or lessee, as a general warehouse for the storage of warehoused merchandise; such place of storage to be designated on the warehouse-entry at the time of entering such merchandise at the custom-house.

Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 1, 10 Stat. 270. Act June 30, 1864, c. 171, § 19, 13 Stat. 216.

§ 5647. (R. S. § 2963.) Deposit for want of invoice.

When merchandise, imported into the United States, has not been entered in pursuance of the provisions of any act regulating imports and tonnage, the same shall be deposited in the public warehouse, and shall there remain, at the expense and risk of the owner, until such invoice is produced. Nothing herein contained shall be understood to prohibit the sale of such quantities of merchandise so stored as may be necessary to discharge the duties thereon, and all intervening charges, at the time or times when such duties shall become due and payable.

Act March 1, 1823, c. 21, § 3, 3 Stat. 730.

§ 5648. (R. S. § 2964.) Deposit upon nonpayment of duties.

In all cases of failure or neglect to pay the duties within the period allowed by law to the importer to make entry thereof, or whenever the owner, importer, or consignee shall make entry for warehousing the same, in writing, in such form and supported by such proof as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the merchandise shall be taken possession of by the collector, and deposited in the public stores, or in other stores to be agreed on by the collector or chief revenue officer of the port, and the importer, owner, or consignee, such stores to be secured under the joint locks of the inspector and importer, there to be kept, with due and reasonable care, at the charge and risk of the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, and subject at all times to their order, upon payment of the proper duties and expenses, to be ascertained on due entry thereof for warehousing, and to be secured by a bond of the owner, importer, or consignee, with surety to the satisfaction of the collector, in double the amount of the duties, and in such form as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe.

Act Aug. 6, 1846, c. 84, § 1, 9 Stat. 53.

§ 5649. (R. S. § 2965.) Unclaimed merchandise may be stored in bonded warehouses.

Unclaimed merchandise required by existing laws to be taken possession of by collectors of the customs may be stored in any public warehouse owned or leased by the United States, or in any private bonded warehouse authorized by this Title, and all charges for storage, labor, and other expenses accruing on any such merchandise, not to exceed in any case the regular rates for such objects at the port in question, must be paid before delivery of the goods on due entry thereof by the claimant or owner; or if sold as unclaimed goods, to realize the import duties, the charges shall be paid by the collector out of the proceeds of the sale thereof before paying such proceeds into the Treasury as required by existing laws.

Act March 28, 1854, c. 30, § 2, 10 Stat. 271.

§ 5650. (Act March 1, 1879, c. 125, § 11.) Deposit of imported liquors in bonded warehouse.

All distilled spirits, wines, and malt liquors, imported in pipes,

hogsheads, tierces, barrels, casks, or other similar packages, shall be first placed in public store or bonded warehouse, and shall not be removed therefrom until the same shall have been inspected, marked, and branded by a United States customs-gauger, and a stamp affixed to each package, indicating the date and particulars of such inspection; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to prescribe the form of, and provide, the requisite stamps, and to make all regulations which he may deem necessary and proper for carrying the foregoing requirements into effect. Any pipe, hogshead, tierce, barrel, cask, or other package withdrawn from public store or bonded warehouse after the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, purporting to contain imported liquor, found without having thereon the stamp hereby required, shall be, with its contents, forfeited to the United States; and whenever any cask or package of imported distilled spirits of not less than five winegallons is filled for shipment, sale, or delivery on the premises of any wholesale liquor-dealer, the same shall be stamped with a special stamp for imported spirits, under such rules and regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue has prescribed, or may hereafter prescribe, in the case of domestic distilled spirits. (20 Stat. 342.)

This section and the two sections next following were part of "An Act to amend the laws relating to internal revenue," cited above, appearing therein under the heading "Imported-Liquor Stamps, &c." Other sections of the act are incorporated in provisions set forth under Title XXXV, "Internal Revenue."

§ 5651. (Act March 1, 1879, c. 125, § 12, as amended, Act May 28, 1880, c. 108, § 12.) Stamps and brands to be effaced on emptying packages of imported liquors; penalty for failure. Every person who empties or draws off, or causes to be emptied or drawn off, the contents of any package of imported liquors stamped as above required, shall, at the time of such emptying, efface, obliterate, and destroy the stamp thereon, and also all other marks or brands which shall have been placed thereon in accordance with the law or regulations concerning imported liquors; every cask or other package from which the stamp for imported liquors required by this act to be placed thereon shall not be effaced, obliterated, or destroyed, on emptying such package, shall be forfeited, and the same may be seized by any officer of internal revenue wherever found; and all the provisions and penalties of section thirty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to empty casks or packages from which the marks, brands, or stamps have not been effaced or obliterated, and relating to the removal of stamps from packages, and to having in possession any stamps so removed, shall apply to the stamps for imported spirits herein provided for, and to the casks or other packages on which such stamps shall have been used. (20 Stat. 342. 21 Stat. 148.)

This section was amended by striking out after the words "the law or regulations concerning imported liquors" the words "and no cask or other package, such as is herein before mentioned, in which distilled spirits, wines, or malt