Gill Nadel, Adv.
Recently, a decision was issued by the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem in which the court softened somewhat the requirement for payment under protest required in paragraph 154 to the Customs Code.
That case involved a suit filed by an importer for the refund of duties that it overpaid under protest. After the suit was filed, additional reports were released by the importer, and the importer requested to join in the action the duties paid in these reports. In most of the reports the duties were paid under protest, but in the minority, the words under protest were not written on the reports.
The Customs Authority opposed joining the two reports on which under protest was not written, since these reports did not meet the conditions of paragraph 154 that requires that the words under protest be written on the report. The importer claimed, conversely, that the Customs Authority knew of the importer's protest, through the filing of an action regarding similar goods, and therefore the lack of the words "under protest" on the report, when the disagreement was already known, is an insignificant detail and should not be sufficient to reject the joining of these reports to the action.
The court accepted the importer's claim and ruled that since what is involved is reports after suit had been filed, the Customs Authority certainly was aware of the action. The court added that it was have been better for the Customs Authority had it not raised the issue regarding the lack of the words "under protest".
Gill Nadel, Adv, together with Rotam Virnik from his office, represented the importer.
בש"א 2221/06 Garnet- Israeli Security Composite for External Shielding (2001) Ltd. v. the State of Israeli- Customs and VAT Branch.
For a similar decision, see ת "א 99086/00 Magistrates Court of Tel Aviv- decision given 5.2.06. It should be noted that there is previous precedent from other courts that is more strict, for example 115467/04 בש "א Magistrates Court of Tel Aviv- decision (partial) given 1.7.04; בש "א 180471/04 Magistrates Court of Tel Aviv, decision given 11.11.2004.
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