Betz v. United States

6 Cust. Ct. 297, 1941 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 75
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 5, 1941
DocketC. D. 487
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Cust. Ct. 297 (Betz 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
Betz v. United States, 6 Cust. Ct. 297, 1941 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 75 (cusc 1941).

Opinions

Tilson, Judge:

The suits listed in schedule A, hereto attached and made a part hereof, were filed by the plaintiffs seeking to recover [298]*298certain sums of money alleged to have been illegally exacted as customs duties on certain imported merchandise, invoiced as seaweed, partly prepared. Duty was levied on said merchandise at 25 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 5 - of the Tariff Act of 1930, as sodium alginate. The plaintiffs claim the same to be free of duty under paragraph 1722 or 1750, or to be properly dutiable at only 10 or 20 per centum under paragraph 1558, at 10 per centum under paragraph 1555, or at 10 per centum under paragraph 1540 of said act.

While not abandoning any of their claims the plaintiffs rely chiefly on the claim under paragraph 1540, which paragraph reads as follows:

Pah. 1540. Moss and sea grass, eelgrass, and seaweeds, if manufactured or dyed, 10 per centum ad valorem.

Paragraph 5, under which the classification was made reads as follows:

Par. 5. All chemical elements, all chemical salts and compounds, all medicinal preparations, and all combinations and mixtures of any of the ¡foregoing, all the foregoing obtained naturally or artificially and not specially provided for, 25 per centum ad valorem.

The appraiser at Baltimore in his timely report, states:

Merchandise bought, sold, and invoiced as,“Seaweed partly prepared” was analyzed and found to be sodium alginate, a chemical salt or compound,'obtained from treating alginic acid with sodium carbonate.

At the trial of this case three witnesses testified for the plaintiffs and one witness testified for the defendant. In addition, the record in a previously decided case, suit 4154, was admitted in evidence in this case, and marked exhibit 102. There were also admitted in evidence two samples of the imported merchandise, marked exhibits 100 and 103, and a composite sample of the merchandise taken from different shipments before the court was admitted in evidence as exhibit 101. There was also admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit AA a microscopic slide of the plant debris from exhibit 103.

On account of the length of the record before us we shall not attempt any detailed discussion of the same, because to do so would extend this decision to an unwarranted length. We have been favored with well-considered briefs by counsel for both parties.

A decision as to the proper classification of such or similar merchandise was reported as Betz v. United States, T. D. 46896. The record in that case was admitted in evidence as a part of the record in Betz v. United States, T. D. 49214, and suit 4154. The decision of the appellate court in suit 4154 is reported in 26 C. C. P. A. 399. In its decision, the appellate court took occasion to state:

We do not think it requires extended discussion or citations of authority to support the conclusion that the imported “Norgine F” is neither seaweed in a [299]*299crude state nor should it be regarded as “seaweeds * * * manufactured,” for tariff purposes. To be either it is essential that it still be seaweed.

We do not feel that it is necessary or advisable to attempt a review of all the previous litigation on this subject. It is clear to us that if the new evidence offered in this case, considered and weighed in connection with all the other evidence, is not sufficient to require a holding that the imported merchandise is still seaweed, then the decision of the appellate court is decisive of the issue here presented. While we have read and considered the entire record before us, particular attention has been given to determining whether or not the additional evidence requires a holding that the merchandise as imported is still some form of seaweed.

We are not impressed with the plaintiffs’ claim that the merchandise is seaweeds, crude or unmanufactured, and this claim may be dismissed without further consideration, as the evidence shows the merchandise is not seaweed crude or unmanufactured. The question of whether or not the merchandise is seaweeds manufactured is not so easily disposed of.. In order that we may have a clear understanding of just what manufacturing operations have been performed upon the raw seaweed to bring it to its condition as imported, we quote the following from the testimony of Hans Hamm, as printed in the record in suit 41£4: '

The seaweed is washed in water and then cut out in pieces 10 cm. long. These pieces are again washed abundantly in water in which sulphuric acid and muriatic acid 2% of each are added. Thereafter the merchandise is again washed in pure water and the acid coating neutralized by means of soda. The seaweed is then dried and again cut into smaller pieces by means of notched rollers. Inasmuch as nothing is taken away from the plant, the partly prepared seaweed possesses all the ingredients contained in the original article.

In this same connection we quote the following from the testimony of Dr. Stein, who had the technical and commercial control of the firm that processed or manufactured the raw seaweed to the state in which it was imported:

The seaweed is treated with acids and then with alkili so that the original indissolvable in water seaweed became dissolvable. Inasmuch as from the plant nothing is taken away, the prepared seaweed possessed all the ingredients contained in the original article.
The merchandise shipped to Messrs. W. H. & L. D. Betz is no extract of algin. It is the whole plant including the original cellulose contained in it. By the treatment described in my answer No. 6, the indissolvable calcilium salt of the laminaric acid contained in the original plant has been changed into dissolvable sodium salt of the laminaric acid.

[300]*300Adverting now to the new or.additional testimony of Dr. -Waksman, which was not before this court and the appellate court in the former case, we find thatthis witness holds a degree of Master of Science from Rutgers University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of California. These degrees are in the field of biochemistry and. microbiology, which deal with the chemistry of living and dead plant and animal tissues and a study of microbes and their effect on plant transformation. In 1931 this witness became associated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, located in Massachusetts, and has there made a study of microbiology and marine bacteriological forms, and is otherwise well qualified from his vast field of work and experience. This witness testified that the imported merchandise contains all or practically all the organic ingredients which were contained in the original seaweed, and that, as imported, it is not a new product; that the structure of the imported merchandise is not very different from the raw seaweed; the material is not sodium alginate, but is seaweed which has been treated merely to remove the salts; that the process described by Hans Hamm and Dr. Stein is one of the most satisfactory means of preserving seaweed and that the cellulose and lignin in the imported merchandise show that the seaweed nature is- still there.

This witness further testified that there is calcium with the alginic acid in the seaweed, and they remove the calcium and substitute the other base which is sodium in this case. This, of course, is done in the.

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Bluebook (online)
6 Cust. Ct. 297, 1941 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/betz-v-united-states-cusc-1941.