Mediation at Trade Court Led to Full Resolution of Customs Penalty Case, Judge Reports
Mediation at the Court of International Trade in a customs penalty suit between the U.S. and importer Katana Racing resulted in a settlement of all issues, CIT Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves reported on June 6 (U.S. v. Katana Racing, CIT # 19-00125).
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John Peterson, counsel for Katana, said the settlement is confidential but that "neither party walked away completely happy, but both are reasonably happy."
The U.S. and Katana asked for mediation after the trade court's recent decision rejecting the importer's renewed motion to dismiss (see 2410230026). The government brought the suit to collect duties on 386 tire entries, which Katana said were entered as the result of identity theft. The importer waived the statute of limitations while it worked with CBP to sort out the issue, though it was eventually billed $5.7 million for the duties. Katana then tried to revoke the waiver.
CIT first said the waiver was properly revoked (see 2203280047), though the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed, finding that the statute of limitations isn't a jurisdictional issue but an affirmative defense and returning it to the trade court (see 2308030034). CIT Judge Lisa Wang rejected a renewed motion to dismiss, finding, among other things, that the U.S. didn't fail to bring the case on time or properly identify the person liable for the violation (see 2409090047).
The matter was then referred to Choe-Groves for mediation (see 2410300008).