Corex Corporation, D/B/A Quick Corporation of America v. United States

The substantive issue in this case is whether appellee Corex Corp. (taxpayer) or the Jon H. Importing Company (Jon. H.) was the “importer” of certain fishing equipment during the last half of 1968 and all of 1969 and thus subject to pay the excise tax imposed under Section 4161 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 4161 . The district court’s first judgment holding that Jon H. was the importer was reversed by a panel of this Court in Corex Corp. v. United States, 524 F.2d 1017 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 912 , 96 S.Ct. 1508 , 47 L.Ed.2d 762 (1976) (“Corex I”). The underlying facts of the case were recited in Corex I and do not bear repeating here.

After this Court reversed the district court’s first judgment in favor of the taxpayer, a flurry of confused and confusing motions and orders ensued. Taxpayer believed that this Court's unqualified reversal entitled it to a new trial at which it would present new evidence to support its claim that Jon H. was the importer. The government, of course, disputed this construction of the Court’s mandate. The district court ordered the parties to seek clarification from this Court as to the mandate. This Court denied taxpayer’s…