American Customs Brokg. Co. v. United States

63 Cust. Ct. 385, 1969 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3744
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 14, 1969
DocketC.D. 3923
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 Cust. Ct. 385 (American Customs Brokg. 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
American Customs Brokg. Co. v. United States, 63 Cust. Ct. 385, 1969 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3744 (cusc 1969).

Opinion

Landis, Judge:

The gist of this protest is that customs at Honolulu, Hawaii, improperly classified parts for a sugar centrifugal machine, exported from the United Kingdom, as parts for a centrifuge, dutiable at 11.5 per centum ad valorem under TSUS (Tariff Schedules of the United States) item 661.90. Plaintiff, by amended protest, claims that the parts are properly free of duty under TSUS item 666.20 as parts of machinery for use in the manufacture of sugar. Plaintiff’s original claim under TSUS 666.00 as parts for agricultural implements, aban-d oned on trial (R. 4), is dismissed.

TSUS item Nos. 661.90 and 666.20 are both part of TSUS' schedule 6, part 4. TSUS item 661.90 is in subpart A. TSUS item 666.20 is in subpart C. A statutory headnote to subpart A provides that, as a matter of law:

1. A machine or appliance which is described in this subpart [subpart A] and also is described elsewhere in this part [part 4] is classifiable in this subpart [subpart A].

The context in which TSUS items 661.90 and 666.20 appear in schedule 6, part 4, is as follows:

[Subpart A.]
Centrifuges; filtering and purifying machinery and apparatus (other than filter funnels, milk strainers, and similar articles), for liquids or gases; all the foregoing and parts thereof:

Centrifuges and parts thereof:

Cream separators:
##***#*
661.90 Other 11.5% ad val.
if: if: % # if:
[Subpart C.]
Industrial machinery for preparing and manufacturing food or drink, and parts thereof:
666.20 Machinery for use in the manufacture of sugar, and parts thereof_ Free

On this record, we find that the imported parts are, as a matter of fact, parts for a sugar centrifugal machine, which is a machine used in the manufacture of sugar, as specified in TSUS item 666.20. The customs classification carries with it, however, the presumption that the imported parts are also parts for a centrifuge. F. H. Kaysing v. United States, 49 CCPA 69, C.A.D. 798 (1962). The issue, as we see [387]*387it, is whether a sugar centrifugal machine is a centrifuge. If it is, then the parts, imported for sugar centrifugal machinery, are, as a matter of law, subpart A headnote, supra, properly dutiable as parts for a centrifuge under TSUS 661.90. Amalgamated Sugar Company v. United States, 60 Cust. Ct. 268, C.D. 3361, 281 F. Supp. 373 (1968). Plaintiff takes the obvious route of arguing that a sugar centrifugal machine is not a centrifuge.

Before we get to the common meaning of the tariff term “centrifuges” and, incidentally, the definition of the word “centrifugal”, which plaintiff admits this case is all about, Marshall Field & Co. v. United States, 45 CCPA 72, C.A.D. 676 (1958), it will help to know what a sugar centrifugal machine is and does. Quite simply, a sugar centrifugal machine is a large machine, featuring a basket or drum (illustrative exhibit 1) into which massecuite (a heavy viscous mixture of sugar crystals and molasses, exhibit 2) is fed and agitated at 1200 revolutions per minute, in order to separate the liquid (exhibit 4) from the solid (raw sugar, exhibit 3), by centrifugal force. Exhibit 5 is a brochure with pictures of various types of centrifuges. For reasons we shall discuss, and notwithstanding opinion testimony from representatives in the sugar industry as to the differences between a “centrifugal” and a “centrifuge”, we hold that the common meaning of the tariff term “centrifuges” includes sugar centrifugal machinery.

The opinion testimony of the witnesses associated with the sugar manufacturing industry in Hawaii, attests that in the sugar industry a distinction is made between centrifugal machinery, a large machine designed to separate liquids from solids, and centrifuges, a smaller machine, which the witnesses understood includes only machinery designed to separate liquids from liquids. These basic considerations, in their opinion, made a centrifugal machine different from a centrifuge machine albeit, in both, the separation is accomplished by centrifugal force. While sugar centrifugal machinery may have unique features not common to centrifuges generally, this does not prove that sugar centrifugals are not “centrifuges” within the common meaning of that tariff term. Plaintiff admits that it is apparent from the record herein that there are two distinct types of centrifugal machines, the centrifugal depicted in exhibit 1 and the centrifuge depicted in exhibit 5. (Plaintiff’s brief, page 11.) Tariff laws are drafted in the language of commerce which is presumptively that in common use. Opinion testimony, unless it establishes a uniform commercial meaning of a tariff term that is not the commonly accepted meaning, is merely advisory to the court. Marshall Field & Co. v. United States, supra. Plaintiff does not profess that the term “centrifuges” has a special commercial meaning. It is our task, therefore, to decide what the term “centrifuges” is commonly understood to mean. United States [388]*388v. Mercantil Distribuidora, S.A., Joseph H. Brown, 43 CCPA 111, 117, C.A.D. 617 (1956). Since we must also decide whether sugar centrifugal machinery is within the common meaning of “centrifuges”, we set forth the definitions of “centrifugal” and “centrifuges”, cited in common by both sides, as follows:

The American College Dictionary (1956), page 196:

centrifugal * * * -n. 4. a solid or perforated cylinder rotated rapidly to separate solids from liquids.
centrifuge -n. a machine consisting of a rotating container in which substances of different densities may be separated by the centrifugal force.

Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language (2nded.) 1958, page 436:

centrifugal -n. 1. A centrifugal machine, or a drum in such a machine.

Page 437:

centrifuge n. A machine for centrifuging or separating by rotation, as cream from milk, bacteria from a fluid, etc.

Funk & Wagnails New “Standard” Dictionary of the English Language (1960), page 434:

centrifugal n. 1. Any mechanism serving to cause solids or liquids to separate from liquids of lower specific gravity, the heavier settling to the bottom, with the light liquid floating on top. 2. A drum-like part of a centrifugal machine.
centrifuge n. I a Centrifugal. II n. An instrument by which the heavier constituents of a fluid (blood-corpuscles, bacteria, sediments, etc.) may be separated by centrifugal action from the lighter portions.

AudeVs New Mechanical Dictionary (1960) contains the following definition:

Centrifugal Machine — a machine for the utilization of centrifugal force; usually one in which a liquid is expelled rapidly from a substance placed within a rapidly revolving pan or wherein a light liquid is separated from a heavier one by the same means.

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1965), page 363:

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Related

Castle & Cooke, Inc. v. United States
68 Cust. Ct. 75 (U.S. Customs Court, 1972)
Great Western Sugar Co. v. United States
64 Cust. Ct. 127 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
63 Cust. Ct. 385, 1969 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-customs-brokg-co-v-united-states-cusc-1969.