American Import Co. v. United States

20 Cust. Ct. 128, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 19
United States Customs Court·Decided March 22, 1948·No. C. D. 1095·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Mollison, Judge:

The merchandise involved in these cases consists of badminton-shuttlecocks imported from England. Duty was assessed thereon by the collector of customs at the rate of 40 per centum ad valorem under the provision in paragraph 1518 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. §1001, par. 1518), as modified by the trade agreement with the United Kingdom reported in T. D. 49753, for articles not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of certain feathers. Insofar as pertinent, the paragraph under which classification was made, read, prior to modification, as follows:

Par. 1518. Feathers and downs, on the skin or otherwise, crude or not dressed, colored, or otherwise advanced or manufactured m any manner, not specially provided for, 20 per centum ad valorem; dressed, colored, or otherwise advanced or manufactured in any manner, including quilts of down and other manufactures of down, 60 per centum ad valorem; feather dusters, 45 per centum ad valorem; artificial or ornamental feathers suitable for use as millinery ornaments, 60 per centum ad valorem; * * * boas, boutonnieres, wreaths, and all articles not specifically provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of any of the feathers, flowers, leaves, or other material above mentioned, shall be subject to the rate of duty provided in this paragraph for such materials, but not less than 60 per centum ad valorem: * * *.

Effective January 1, 1939, prior to the importation of the merchandise at bar, the said paragraph was modified by the aforementioned trade agreement to reduce to 40 per centum ad valorem the duty on—

Boas, boutonnieres, wreaths, and all articles not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of any of the feathers mentioned in the duty provisions of paragraph 1518, Tariff Act of 1930.

Each of the protests filed by the plaintiff claims the merchandise to be properly dutiable at only 30 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1502 of the same act. That paragraph reads as follows:

Par. 1502. Boxing gloves, baseballs, footballs, tennis balls, golf balls, and all other balls, of whatever material composed, finished or unfinished, primarily designed for use in physical exercise (whether or not such, exercise involves the element of sport), and all clubs, rackets, bats, golf tees, and other equipment, such as is ordinarily used in conjunction therewith, all the foregoing, not specially provided for, 30 per centum ad valorem; ice and roller skates, and parts thereof, 20 per centum ad valorem.

[130] In addition to claim under the foregoing paragraph, the usual claim for duty at the rate of 10 or 20 per centum ad valorem under the nonenumerated articles provisions of paragraph 1558 is contained in each of the protests.

Although the claim under paragraph 1502 is stated to be made both directly, and by similitude under the provisions of paragraph 1559 of the tariff act, a mere examination of the exhibit offered and received as illustrative of the imported merchandise, plaintiff’s illustrative exhibit 1, is sufficient to determine that it is not covered directly by any of the provisions of paragraph 1502. It consists of a short piece of light material, probably cork or balsa, rounded at one end and with a crown of feathers at the other end. Plaintiff’s claim is obviously under the provision for balls, but it is clear that the shuttlecocks represented by the exhibit do not respond to that term as commonly used. If plaintiff’s claim under paragraph 1502 is valid, therefore, it must be by virtue of the similitude provisions of paragraph 1559.

It is well-settled that before recourse may be had to the similitude provisions, every dutiable enumeration in the tariff act must be found to be inapplicable. United States v. Stouffer Co., 3 Ct. Cust. Appls. 67, T. D. 32351. With this in mind, the inquiry naturally suggests itself whether the provision under which classification was made by the collector is applicable to the merchandise. Although this provision is general in scope, the articles covered by it are “enumerated” within the meaning of that term as used in the similitude provision. Mason v. Robertson, 139 U. S. 624. As was said in United States v. Cochran, 3 Ct. Cust. Appls. 57, T. D. 32349, referring to the similitude provision—

* * * In the application of this provision an article is “enumerated” if it comes within a class made dutiable in general terms by the act, quite as certainly as if the article is made dutiable under an eq nomine designation.

The question therefore is whether the shuttlecocks at bar are covered by the provision for articles, not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of the feathers mentioned.

The plaintiff has not attempted to show that the shuttlecocks in issue are not in chief value of feathers. It seeks, rather, to take them out of classification under paragraph 1518, supra, on the ground that they are not ejusdem generis with any of the articles provided for in the said paragraph.

The rule of ejusdem generis is stated in Sutherland on Statutory Construction, 3rd ed. vol. 2, § 4909, as follows:

* * * Where general words follow specific words in an enumeration describing the legal subject, the general words are construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the preceding specific words.

[131] and in §191 of Crawford’s “The Construction of Statutes” as follows:

Where general words follow the designation of particular things, or classes of persons or subjects, the general words will usually be construed to include only-those persons or things of the same class or general nature as those specifically" enumerated.

The particular or specific words here involved are “boas, boutonnieres, wreaths” and the general words following them are “and all articles not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of any of the feathers” previously mentioned in the paragraph. The feathers previously mentioned in the paragraph are:

(1) Feathers, crude or not dressed, colored, or otherwise advanced or manufactured in any manner.
(2) Feathers, dressed, colored, or otherwise advanced or manufactured in any manner.
(3) Artificial or ornamental feathers suitable for use as millinery ornaments.

While no oral evidence on the point was offered, it would appear from an inspection of the sample that the feathers used in the imported article were those in category (2), i. e., feathers, advanced in some manner.

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American Import Co. v. United States, 20 Cust. Ct. 128, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 19 (cusc 1948).

20 Cust. Ct. 128 (American Import Co. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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