Discovery Dispute at the Court of International Trade
Discovery is the legal process through which each side to a law suit asks the other side to disclose the facts relevant to the claims and defenses. It usually consists of depositions of knowledgeable witnesses, written questions and requests for production. Discovery disputes are unusual in customs litigation. More often than not, the parties can reach an agreement on the material facts. The dispute is usually, but not always, over the conclusions to be reached from those facts after the applicable law is properly interpreted. When a discovery dispute does arise, people notice (and by "people" I mean "me"). Meyer Corporation, U.S. v. United States is about a discovery dispute. The underlying issue is that Customs and Border Protection audited Meyer and determined that its application of the first sale methodology of valuation was unacceptable. If you don't know what that means, go back and read this classic post from 2005. Customs also denied duty-free claim