A. D. Cohen Co. v. United States

32 C.C.P.A. 8, 1944 CCPA LEXIS 104
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedApril 27, 1944
DocketNo. 4466
StatusPublished

This text of 32 C.C.P.A. 8 (A. D. Cohen Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. D. Cohen Co. v. United States, 32 C.C.P.A. 8, 1944 CCPA LEXIS 104 (ccpa 1944).

Opinion

LenROOt, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Customs Court, Second Division, overruling a protest by appellant against the classification and assessment with duty by the collector at the port of New York of certain hats under the provisions of paragraph 1504 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which, insofar as is here pertinent, reads as follows:

Par. 1504. (a) Braids, plaits, laces, and willow sheets or squares, composed wholly or in chief value of straw, chip, paper, grass, palm leaf, willow, osier, rattan, real horsehair, cuba bark, or manila hemp, and braids and plaits, wholly or in chief value of ramie, all the foregoing suitable for making or ornamenting hat§, bonnets, or hoods * * *.
(b) Hats, bonnets, and hoods, composed wholly or in chief value of straw, chip, paper, grass, palm leaf, willow, osier, rattan, real horsehair, cuba- bark, ramie, or manila hemp, whether wholly or partly manufactured:
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(2) not blocked or trimmed, if bleached, dyed, colored, or stained, 25 cents per dozen and 25 per centum ad valorem * * *.

Appellaut claimed that the hats are dutiable under paragraph 1413 of said act which, insofar as is here pertinent, reads as follows:

Par. 1413. * * * manufactures of paper, or of which paper is the component material of chief value, not specially provided, all the foregoing, 35 per centum ad valorem * * *.

The cause was submitted to the trial court upon the following stipulation:

It is hereby stipulated and agreed by and between counsel for the plaintiff and the Assistant Attorney General for the United States that the merchandise assessed with duty at 25% ad valorem and 25c per dozen under Par. 1504 (b) (2) [10]*10of the Tariff Act of 1930 consists of hats or hoods, not blocked or trimmed, manufactured as follows:
1. Rolls or sheets of colored paper are cut into strips of narrow width, the width depending upon the fineness of the texture desired for the finished article;
2. The strips are machine twisted and wound on a spool, after which they are dipped into a cellulose material which adheres to the paper, and is allowed to dry; the dipping and drying processes are repeated a sufficient number of times to form a coating, of a desired thickness, upon the twisted paper strips:
3. After drying, the twisted yarn-like threads or strings are put up in skeins 600 feet in length;
4. The skeins of material are then, by a weaving process, formed into hats or hoods.
5. The skeins of material have other substantial uses in the formation of other articles, such as in the formation of the woven paper cloth which was before the court in Edward M. Poons Co. of Kobe, Inc. v. United States, 26 C. C. P. A. 310 C. A. D. 33, and therein held dutiable at 35% ad valorem under Par. 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
It is further stipulated and agreed that the protest be submitted on this stipulation, the protest being limited to the merchandise described herein and to the claim that said merchandise is dutiable at 35% ad valorem under Par. 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

It is appellant’s contention that the involved hats are not composed wholly or in chief value of paper, but are composed of twisted coated strands of paper, which are more than paper and have a new name, new uses, and separate tariff standing. It, therefore, contends that the involved hats are manufactures of paper of which paper is the component material of chief value.

In support of this contention reliance is very largely had upon our decision in the case of Edward M. Poons Co. of Kobe, Inc. v. United States, 26 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 310, C. A. D. 33, in which we held that “Toyo” paper hats, made from material similar to the material from which the involved hats were made and in the same manner, were held to be dutiable under paragraph 1313 of the Tariff Act of 1922 as manufactures of paper, and not under paragraph 1305 of the same act as articles composed wholly or in chief value of surface coated paper.

The trial court, in its decision in the case at bar, quoted from our decision in the case last cited as follows:

We are in entire agreement with the trial court'in its holding that the Toyo hats and Toyo cloth at bar are not manufactures of surface-coated paper but are manufactured from.an article made from paper, which article had been coated with celluloid.
* * * * • * * *
The reasoning in that case (Kupfer Bros. Co. v. United States, 7 Ct. Cust. Appls. 86) prompts the conclusion in the case at bar that the trial court properly found that the strips of paper, even before they had been twisted and treated with celluloid, had ceased to be mere paper but were articles made from paper.

[11]*11The trial court, following said quotation, stated:

Had the appellate court made no further statement in the Poons case than that quoted above, that decision might be considered as supporting to some extent the position of the plaintiff herein, but later on in the same decision the appellate court also stated:
Lastly, it may be suggested that if the hats and cloth involved are articles .made from other articles made from paper they cannot be regarded as “manufactures of paper or of which paper is the component material of chief value,” as they were classified by the collector and so held to be by the trial court. If you start with •paper and finish with an article in which paper is the component material of chief value, it is immaterial if in the process of manufacturing the article a completely manufactured article, which is in the form of material for future manufacturing efforts, results. Just here is where the rule which appellant seeks to invoke by some of the cited cases is applicable. We do not here have language in the controverted provision for manufactures of paper which permits the application of the rule which was involved in Cohn & Lewis v. United States, 25 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 220, T. D. 49335. There the term “manufactured wholly or in part of wool felt” required that wool felt must have a separate existence. The record in that case showed no separate existence of the wool felt and it was held that the provision did not cover the imported merchandise which had been classified as wool felt wearing apparel. The situation is different in the case at bar. The merchandise falls squarely under the provision “manufactures of paper or of which paper is the component material of chief value” for the reason that the manufacturing effort began with paper and ended with an article in which paper was the component material of chief value. [Italics ours.]

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Related

Kupfer Bros. Co. v. United States
7 Ct. Cust. 86 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
32 C.C.P.A. 8, 1944 CCPA LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-d-cohen-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1944.