Exporter Tau-Ken Temir waived its arguments against the Commerce Department's decision to grant the company's first two extension requests in part and reject the third request, the U.S. argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government said that because TKT did not raise the issues either at Commerce or at the Court of International Trade in its case on the countervailing duty investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan, the appellate court need not address the claims (Tau-Ken Temir v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 21-27:
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida was wrong to deny refrigerant importer BMP International's motion to compel arbitration in a case brought by Chinese company T.T. International Co. (TTI) for unpaid invoices, BMP argued in its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The district court had said that the motion for arbitration was waived by BMP, along with joint venture iGas USA, after the companies failed to raise the issue in an earlier case involving TTI and BMP (T.T. International Co. v. BMP International, 11th Cir. # 23-11978).
Chargebacks911’s motion to stay discovery pending a ruling on its amended motion to dismiss should be denied, said the FTC and the Florida attorney general in their Aug. 21 opposition (docket 8:23-cv-00796) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.
No lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade.
CBP's admission that imported desk pad and planning calendars meet the dictionary definition of "calendar" is evidence that the items should have been so classified as a calendar under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. subheading 4910.00.2000 instead of the basket provision for other paper products in subheading 4820.10.4000, importer Blue Sky said in a motion for judgment filed Aug. 23 at the Court of International Trade. Blue Sky is attempting to overturn CBP's classification of four models of Blue Sky's weekly and monthly planning calendars. While both classifications are duty-free, the government's preferred classification carries additional Section 301 duties (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., CIT # 21-00624).
Some $1,399 worth of SanDisk solid-state disk drives (SSDs) bought by plaintiff Emilio Pousa are “essentially worthless,” and parent company Western Digital didn't compensate him for his losses, said a Tuesday fraud class action (docket 5:23-cv-04281) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose. Pousa names Western Digital and “Does 1-10,” whose identities and involvement in the wrongdoing at issue will be revealed “if and when they become known,” said the complaint.
AT&T’s Aug. 1 motion to dismiss (see 2308020058) should be denied because plaintiffs EDN Global and CEO Jerome Edmondson “alleged facts, which, if proven, state a claim for relief on each claim asserted,” said the plaintiffs’ opposition Monday (docket 3:23-cv-00355). The case stems from when Edmondson became AT&T’s first authorized minority dealer for the Commerce Department’s FirstNet public safety broadband network (see 2307130013). He alleges he lost more than $100 million in damages after AT&T pilfered his trade secrets, and inserted an all-white AT&T sales team to replace a qualified all-African American sales team and destroyed the sales organization he built. AT&T’s facts are inaccurate about the breach of contract, said the opposition. The contract claims against AT&T didn’t accrue until March 2021, it said. The plaintiffs also filed their action in June 2022, “well within the statute of limitations,” it said. The plaintiffs’ tort claims aren’t barred by the economic loss rule, it said. The tort claims are independent of the alleged contract with AT&T, and the plaintiffs’ losses aren’t “purely economic,” it said. If the economic loss rule is found to be applicable, “its application is barred by the misrepresentation exception,” it said.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 23 upheld the Commerce Department's deduction of Section 232 duties paid by Turkish exporter Noksel Celik Boru Sanayi from its U.S. price in the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Turkey. Judge Jane Restani said she saw "no reason to vary" this finding, as previously made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, regarding the government's move to raise the duties solely on Turkish goods.