19 USC § 1618 - Remission or mitigation of penalties | Title 19 - Customs Duties | U.S. Code

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Current through Pub. L. 112-238. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

Whenever any person interested in any vessel, vehicle, aircraft, merchandise, or baggage seized under the provisions of this chapter, or who has incurred, or is alleged to have incurred, any fine or penalty thereunder, files with the Secretary of the Treasury if under the customs laws, and with the Commandant of the Coast Guard or the Commissioner of Customs, as the case may be, if under the navigation laws, before the sale of such vessel, vehicle, aircraft, merchandise, or baggage a petition for the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, or the Commissioner of Customs, if he finds that such fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without willful negligence or without any intention on the part of the petitioner to defraud the revenue or to violate the law, or finds the existence of such mitigating circumstances as to justify the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, may remit or mitigate the same upon such terms and conditions as he deems reasonable and just, or order discontinuance of any prosecution relating thereto. In order to enable him to ascertain the facts, the Secretary of the Treasury may issue a commission to any customs officer to take testimony upon such petition: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive any person of an award of compensation made before the filing of such petition.

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Whenever any person interested in any vessel, vehicle, aircraft, merchandise, or baggage seized under the provisions of this chapter, or who has incurred, or is alleged to have incurred, any fine or penalty thereunder, files with the Secretary of the Treasury if under the customs laws, and with the Commandant of the Coast Guard or the Commissioner of Customs, as the case may be, if under the navigation laws, before the sale of such vessel, vehicle, aircraft, merchandise, or baggage a petition for the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, or the Commissioner of Customs, if he finds that such fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without willful negligence or without any intention on the part of the petitioner to defraud the revenue or to violate the law, or finds the existence of such mitigating circumstances as to justify the remission or mitigation of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, may remit or mitigate the same upon such terms and conditions as he deems reasonable and just, or order discontinuance of any prosecution relating thereto. In order to enable him to ascertain the facts, the Secretary of the Treasury may issue a commission to any customs officer to take testimony upon such petition: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive any person of an award of compensation made before the filing of such petition.

Source

(June 17, 1930, ch. 497, title IV, § 618,46 Stat. 757; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, §§ 101–104, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7875, 60 Stat. 1097; Pub. L. 91–271, title III, § 301(hh),June 2, 1970, 84 Stat. 291; Pub. L. 98–473, title II, § 321,Oct. 12, 1984, 98 Stat. 2056; Pub. L. 98–573, title II, § 213(a)(16),Oct. 30, 1984, 98 Stat. 2988.)

Prior Provisions

Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in act Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 356, title IV, § 618,42 Stat. 987. That section was superseded by section 618 of act June 17, 1930, comprising this section, and was repealed by section 651(a)(1) of the 1930 act.

Provisions for a petition to the judge of the district, a summary investigation before the judge or a United States Commissioner, and transmission of the facts appearing thereon, with a certified copy of the evidence, to the Secretary of the Treasury, and provisions authorizing the Secretary to remit fines and penalties, etc., were contained in act June 22, 1874, ch. 391, §§ 17, 18, 20,18 Stat. 189, 190, prior to repeal by act Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 356, title IV, § 643,42 Stat. 989.

Amendments

1984—Pub. L. 98–573and Pub. L. 98–473inserted reference to aircraft in two places.

1970—Pub. L. 91–271substituted “customs officer” for “customs agent, collector, judge of the United States Customs Court, or United States commissioner”.

Effective Date of 1984 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 98–573effective Oct. 15, 1984, see section 214(e) ofPub. L. 98–573, set out as a note under section 1304 of this title.

Effective Date of 1970 Amendment

For effective date of amendment by Pub. L. 91–271, see section 203 ofPub. L. 91–271, set out as a note under section 1500 of this title.

Transfer of Functions

For transfer of authorities, functions, personnel, and assets of the Coast Guard, including the authorities and functions of the Secretary of Transportation relating thereto, to the Department of Homeland Security, and for treatment of related references, see sections 468 (b), 551 (d), 552 (d), and 557 of Title 6, Domestic Security, and the Department of Homeland Security Reorganization Plan of November 25, 2002, set out as a note under section 542 of Title 6.

For transfer of functions, personnel, assets, and liabilities of the United States Customs Service of the Department of the Treasury, including functions of the Secretary of the Treasury relating thereto, to the Secretary of Homeland Security, and for treatment of related references, see sections 203 (1), 551 (d), 552 (d), and 557 of Title 6, Domestic Security, and the Department of Homeland Security Reorganization Plan of November 25, 2002, set out as a note under section 542 of Title 6.

Substitution in text of references to Commandant of the Coast Guard and Commissioner of Customs for “the Secretary of Commerce” under the authority of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, see note set out under section 1613 of this title.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Wednesday, February 6, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

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General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

19 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

This is a list of parts within the Code of Federal Regulations for which this US Code section provides rulemaking authority.

This list is taken from the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules provided by GPO [Government Printing Office].

It is not guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date, though we do refresh the database weekly. More limitations on accuracy are described at the GPO site.

8 CFR - Title 8—Aliens and Nationality

8 CFR 274 - SEIZURE AND FORFEITURE OF CONVEYANCES

19 CFR - Title 19—Customs Duties

19 CFR 12 - SPECIAL CLASSES OF MERCHANDISE

19 CFR 171 - FINES, PENALTIES, AND FORFEITURES

19 CFR 172 - CLAIMS FOR LIQUIDATED DAMAGES; PENALTIES SECURED BY BONDS

21 CFR - Food and Drugs

21 CFR 1316 - ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS, PRACTICES, AND PROCEDURES

27 CFR - Title 27—Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms

27 CFR 72 - DISPOSITION OF SEIZED PERSONAL PROPERTY

28 CFR - Judicial Administration

28 CFR 9 - REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE REMISSION OR MITIGATION OF CIVIL AND CRIMINAL FORFEITURES

50 CFR - Title 50—Wildlife and Fisheries

50 CFR 12 - SEIZURE AND FORFEITURE PROCEDURES

19 USC § 1618 - Remission or mitigation of penalties

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