Control Data Corp. v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is obvious that the assembler had no expenses for the material components and merely bore the expenses of assembly. The percentage which his profits bear to his expenses will be much larger than if he were the actual manufacturer and had to purchase the materials. For this reason it is totally unrealistic, in recreating or simulating- the cost of production, to generate a percentage in this manner. This results in the anomaly of an amount for profit greater than the total actual cost of assembly and profit. Defendant, in its brief asserts that “the appraising official found an amount of profit which would have been realized had there been a cost of materials incurred by the exporter.” This commendable sentiment is precisely what was not done here. The appraising official began without considering the cost of materials at all. He first determined a percentage of profit by dividing the total costs (direct labor, overhead, general and administrative expenses) into the profit. He then, for the first time, brought cost of materials into the consideration by applying said profit percentage to the total sum of cost of component materials, freight, direct labor and general expenses. Thus his procedure in determining the profit percentage was inconsistent with his later application of that percentage. Had the appraising- official been treating the assembler as a manufacturer, as would have been the proper procedure, he would never have computed a profit percentage by ignoring cost ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Control Data Corp. v. United States · Control Data Corp. v. United States

2. “... In this respect, plaintiff [appellee] is entitled to rely on those figures in the appraisement to which the presumption of correctness still attaches. In this case, it is only the method of computation used by the appraising official which has been rejected. The underlying figures for cost of materials, general expenses and profit are not in dispute with regard to the inner and outer memory planes. These figures were supplied by the plaintiff and utilized by the appraising official as demonstrated by plaintiff’s collective exhibit 5 and exhibit 6. They remain presumptively correct and should serve as the elements of constructed value.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Control Data Corp.

3. “One of ironies of this method of computation is that it places the present importer in a worse position when he is supplying the components than if he were to purchase the entire completed article from the assembler. In effect what was done here is actually very close to the levying of duty on the cost of materials, directly contrary to the provisions of item 807.00. The procedure used [h]as the effect of expanding the value of the article by amounts directly related to the cost of materials making the later elimination of the cost of American materials a meaningless act.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Control Data Corp. v. United States