Absorbo Beer Pad Co. v. United States

8 Cust. Ct. 51, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 5
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJanuary 9, 1942
DocketC. D. 580
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Cust. Ct. 51 (Absorbo Beer Pad Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Absorbo Beer Pad Co. v. United States, 8 Cust. Ct. 51, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 5 (cusc 1942).

Opinions

Kincheloe, Judge:

This is a suit brought by the Absorbo Beer Pad Co., Inc., against the United States for the recovery of certain duty alleged to have been improperly assessed on the imported merchandise. The merchandise, as imported, consists of pulpboard in sheets. It was returned by the examiner as embossed on both sides, and was assessed for duty by the collector at 30 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which provides, among other things, for “pulpboard * * * embossed, printed, or decorated or ornamented in any manner.” It is claimed to be dutiable at only 10 percentum ad valorem under paragraph 1402 of said act, as “pulpboard * * * not * * * embossed, printed, decorated or ornamented in any manner.”

A sample of the merchandise from the instant importation is in evidence as exhibit 1. Benjamin B. Goldstein, president of the importing company, testified that they manufacture and sell so-called coasters or beer pads, and have been in that business for 7 years. He stated that the present importation came from the Plattenthal Papier-Fabricke, in Saxony, Germany; that they print the sheets of the imported merchandise in colors and designs, and then cut them out as coasters or pads, as per collective illustrative exhibit A, which was made from the merchandise in question. Collective illustrative exhibit B was put in evidence as showing the same kind of pads without the printing. The witness stated further that the said coasters or pads are used in restaurants, taverns, and bars for resting glasses of beer on them.

[53]*53Inasmuch as it was shown that the merchandise under consideration is of the same general character, imported by the same plaintiff as in the case of Absorbo Beer Pad Co. v. United States, T. D. 49112, and raised the same issue, the record in said T. D. 49112 was incorporated as part of the record herein, on motion of counsel for the government.

As bearing on the issue herein, we think it well to quote the following relevant and pertinent definitions from Webster’s New International Dictionary, 1936:

emboss v. t. 2. To raise the surface of into bosses or protuberances, esp. by pressure against a steel roller cut or engraved with a pattern; to ornament with raised work. 3. To raise in relief from the surface, as an ornament, a head on a coin, type or a device on a letterhead, or the like. Embossed work is done by mechanical means, as by embossing dies; repousse work is done with hand tools, as. embossers. 4. Hence, to adorn or embellish with rich ornamentation.
decorate v. t. b. To increase in beauty by the addition of something becoming or beautiful; to embellish; as, to decorate a palace wall, a grave, a pediment. 2. To set off by ornamental accessories; to deck with striking, and often incongruous, additions;
decoration n. 2. That which adorns, enriches, or beautifies; embellishment; ornament.
decorative adj. 1. Tending to decorate; pertaining to decoration; as: (a) Having a purely ornamental function, (b) suitable for decorating or embellishing; enhancing in attractiveness. 2. Aesthetics. Designed and executed to decorate rather than to represent; pleasing or intended to please by harmonious adaptation of pattern, line, color, rhythm, etc., to imposed restrictions, such as space, position, length, etc.
ornament v. t. To provide with ornament; decorate; embellish; as, to ornament ayoom, or a city.
fancy adj. 2. Adapted to please the fancy or taste; ornamental; — opposed to plain; as, fancy goods.

In tbe said incorporated case (T. D. 49112) the pulpboard was shown by the testimony to have certain markings on both sides that resembled pin points or pin pricks, produced by the application of wire screening to the rollers or the press in the process of manufacture. It was assessed for duty under said paragraph 1413 of said act of 1930 as pulpboard, embossed, decorated or ornamented in any manner, and was claimed not to be so embossed, decorated or ornamented. This court there stated that the whole question before it for determination was whether such pin-prick effect was the result of embossing, or whether, irrespective of the process by which said effect was produced, the pulpboard was in fact "decorated or ornamented in any manner,” so as to bring it within the purview of said paragraph 1413.

In that case Joseph M. Greenberger, general manager of the Absorbo Beer Pad Co., plaintiff, testified that the pin-prick board was ordered as such, and that the plain pulpboard was ordered as “smooth or not pin-prick,” and that the price of the pin prick was higher. Mr. Berthold Schnee, buyer for the same company, testified in that [54]*54same case that he visited the two factories of the manufacturers of the merchandise in Austria, and that in one they make only pin-prick board, because all the rollers have screens, and that in the other factory they make, only plain board, where they used rollers covered with felt. He further stated that the said pin-prick pulpboard was-made by running the pulp wood through a series of rollers, the same as in the manufacture of ordinary plain pulpboard, except that by the attachment of wire screens around some of the rollers the pin prick effect is produced. This court, however, was not altogether certain from that witness’ testimony whether the pin-prick effect was actually produced while going through the rollers, as he stated that after the merchandise left the rollers it was in a wet condition, was cut to size, and placed in a press between screens for the purpose of extracting the water and to facilitate the drying operation, and,, later on, the witness said he could not testify “if those little holes (pin pricks) were made through the rollers or wore made through the press.”

On the question of embossing, this court, in said T. D. 49112. quoted from Stiner & Son v. United States, 2 Ct. Cust. Appls. 347, T. D. 32079, as follows:

* * * Embossing implies not only a perceptibly raised surface but a raised surface which is distinctively and perceptibly a form, figure, or design. On the other hand, the surface of an embossed form, figure, or design need not be raised above the general surface of the article. It is enough if it be raised above the surface which immediately surrounds it. Neither does embossing necessarily require that the relief effect shall be directly produced'by a die appropriate for the purpose. A die for the making of intaglios may be so used as to develop not only intaglio forms, figures, and designs but corresponding forms, figures, and designs the surface of which is in relief.
As suggested by counsel for the importer, any embossed effect in the cards hereunder consideration may be purely incidental to the production of the gold effects and may have been wholly beyond the intention of the manufacturers to produce. Nevertheless, if an embossed effect has been produced the fact that it exists and not the intention of the manufacturers must control classification. [Italics ours.]

In said T. D. 49112, this court, after quoting the definition of the word “emboss” from the New Standard Dictionary, stated:

It will be seen that “emboss” ordinarily implies some ornamental or decorative effect, although perhaps there may be some form of embossing without such effect.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. White
2 Ct. Cust. 80 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)
United States v. Meyerson
2 Ct. Cust. 225 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)
Stiner & Son v. United States
2 Ct. Cust. 347 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)
United States v. Brown & Co.
5 Ct. Cust. 212 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1914)
United States v. Douglas
6 Ct. Cust. 100 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1915)
Absorbo Beer Pad Co. v. United States
1 Cust. Ct. 115 (U.S. Customs Court, 1938)
United States v. Mutual China Co.
9 Ct. Cust. 232 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1919)
Mills & Gibb Corp. v. United States
14 Ct. Cust. 197 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1926)
Wilson & Son (Inc.) v. United States
14 Ct. Cust. 234 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 Cust. Ct. 51, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/absorbo-beer-pad-co-v-united-states-cusc-1942.