A-241-78
The Queen (Appellant)
v.
Emilien Letarte (Respondent)
Court of Appeal, Pratte and Le Dain JJ. and Hyde
D.J.—Montreal, October 21, 1980.
Customs and excise — Appeal from decision of Trial Judge
that seizure of undeclared goods was unlawfully made despite
fact that par. 18(6) of Customs Act had not been complied
with — Whether the good faith of declarants is a consideration
when applying s. 180 of the Act — Appeal allowed — Customs
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-40, ss. 18(b), 180.
APPEAL.
COUNSEL:
J. M. Aubry for appellant.
M. Kaylor for respondent.
SOLICITORS:
Deputy Attorney General of Canada for
appellant.
Gottlieb, Kaylor & Swift, Montreal, for
respondent.
The following is the English version of the
reasons for judgment of the Court delivered orally
by
PRATTE J.: We are all of the view that the
appeal should be allowed.
It is clear that paragraph 18(b) of the Customs
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-40, was not observed in the
case at bar. The decision of the Trial Judge
[[1979] 1 F.C. 605] that, despite this fact, the
seizure of the undeclared goods was not legally
made appears to have been based on the good faith
of the truckers, who failed to comply with para
graph 18(b). This reasoning appears to the Court
to be without legal validity. Under section 180, a
seizure results from failure to comply with section
18, regardless of whether the individuals in ques
tion acted in good faith.
Counsel for the respondent argued that the sei
zure was premature. In his submission, when the
customs officers realized that the truckers con
cerned in this matter had made incomplete decla-
rations, they should have brought this irregularity
to their attention and asked them to correct it. The
Court finds no support for this argument in statute
or precedent.
The appeal will accordingly be allowed with
costs, the decision of the Trial Judge will be
quashed and the action of respondent dismissed
with costs.
You are being directed to the most recent version of the statute which may not be the version considered at the time of the judgment.