Boone v. United States

19 Cust. Ct. 62, 1947 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 919
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1947
DocketC. D. 1068
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 19 Cust. Ct. 62 (Boone 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
Boone v. United States, 19 Cust. Ct. 62, 1947 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 919 (cusc 1947).

Opinion

Johnson, Judge:

This action arises by way of protest filed by the plaintiff against the classification by the collector at the port of San Diego of a carload of barley bran as a nonenumerated manufactured article and his assessment of duty thereon at 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1658 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The plaintiff claims that the merchandise is dutiable at 6 per centum’ ad valorem under paragraph 73Ó, by virtue of the trade agreement with Canada, T. D. 49752, as byproduct feeds obtained in milling wheat or other cereals, or as a mixed feed at the same rate, as provided in said paragraph and trade agreement, or as a waste at 7){ per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1555, as amended by the trade agreement with Mexico, T. D. 50797. By way of amendment of the protest it is further claimed that the merchandise is classifiable as screenings under the provisions of paragraph 731, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by the second Canadian Trade .Agreement, T. D. 49752, at 5 per centum ad valorem.

The merchandise in question, according to the evidence, is prepared in the same manner as the barley bran in dispute in the case of Mary G. Ricks v. United States, 33 C. C. P. A. 1 (Customs), C. A. D. 308. The record in that case consisted solely of the record and evidence in the case of Mary G. Ricks v. United States, 7 Cust. Ct. 63, C. D. 535, involving barley bran. One of the witnesses testifying therein was Alberto Victor Aldrete, Jr., the vice president of the foreign producing company. Mr. Aldrete’s testimony therein was incorporated with and made a part of the record herein.

[63]*63In the pending case the claim is made for the first time that barley bran is classifiable as screenings and the, plaintiff relies solely upon that claim, although not abandoning the other claims made in the protest.

Alberto Victor Aldrete, Sr., the president of the foreign producing company, testified on behalf of the plaintiff in the pending case. The Government produced no witnesses. The witness testified that he was in complete agreement with the method of production of the barley bran as stated by his son, Alberto Victor Aldrete, Jr., and summarized by the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in C. A. D. 308, supra, as follows:

* * * * * * *
The imported product, which is used in this country to feed cattle, is produced in the malt-making operation in the following manner: The barley, after it is received from the field, is elevated to the top of the work tower in the malt-producing plant of the Compañía Mexicana de Malta, S. A., located at Tecate, Mexico. At the top of the tower it is deposited in a bin, and from there it passes by gravity through a series of machines which separate and remove certain components of the barley which are not wanted in the manufacture of the main product — malt. These components comprise beards, awns, foreign seeds such as wheat, broken grains, straw, etc. The barley which has been screened and cleaned as aforesaid is then put into a tank of water, where it remains until it has absorbed about 46 per centum of water. It is next placed in germinating drums, where it remains 6 days; and germination is then stopped and the moisture is drawn off by hot air, leaving barley malt with sprouts attached. Next the malt is elevated to the top of the tower, from which it works down by gravity through the debearder and the malt cleaner, and the sprouts and screenings are removed, making the malt ready for sale to brewers. The malt is not ground in the plant, but is ground by the malt users. Malt of this character is specially provided for in the tariff act, and we are not here concerned with that product. Malt sprouts are also specifically provided for.
In the separating processes, pieces of straw, foreign seeds, wheat, and broken kernels are separated by various kinds of machinery; and they, together with the sprouts — in other words, all except the malted grains with some hull, much of which has been removed — are collected and run through a hammer mill, where the mass is beaten to a fine consistency. It is in that condition that the involved merchandise is imported into this country and sold as barley bran. [Italics not quoted.]

The witness further testified in answer to the question as to the quantity of barley sprouts in the mixture that it contained between 3 and 5 per centum and sometimes less than 3 per centum by weight, and that barley will not sprout more than 6 per centum of sprouts by weight. The witness admitted that he had never determined the percentage of sprouts in barley malt by weight as that was obtained through laboratory analysis and accepted by the trade. Nor was he familiar with the percentage of sprouts in barley malt by volume.

In regard to the quantity of sprouts in the imported commodity, the testimony of the witness, incorporated herein, is as follows:

X Q. Now, would you say that the imported merchandise consists of 16% of [64]*64malt sprouts and 86% of barley screenings, grain barley and.barley bran?— A. No, sir; the sprouts are less than that amount.
X Q. Less than 15%? — A. I would say that the sprouts run between 2 and 3%.
X Q. That is all? — A. That is all.
X Q. And that 97 to 98% represents the barley screenings, the grain barley, and the barley bran; is that correct? — A. Correct.
X Q. That you say it runs from 3 to 4%? — A. Yes; it is an error.
X Q. Do you mean by weight or volume? — A. By weight.
X Q. What about volume? — A. In volume, the percentage might possibly be what Mr. Gottfried stated.
X Q. That is 15%; is that correct? — A. Correct.
(Record pp. 25/26, protest 10358-K.)

Both witnesses testified that in all of their commercial transactions they never had heard of there being from 15 to 20 per centum by bullí of sprouts in barley bran.' Both also testified that the proportion of malt is determined in the trade by weight and not by volume.

The plaintiff contends that as the merchandise consists of beards, awns, foreign seeds, such as wheat, broken grains, straw, sprouts, all various materials which are not wanted in the production of malt and which are separated or screened from barley by machinery during the process of converting the barley into malt, and finally are ground into a fine- consistency, it comes within the scope of paragraph 731, as screenings.

The Government, on the other hand, contends that the merchandise is more than screenings; that is, it is screenings plus the barley or malt' sprouts, which represent 15 per centum of the imported merchandise. -

If the commodity before the court is nothing more than screenings of grains or other seeds, it comes directly within the classifiable provision for screenings. If, however, it is a mixture of screenings and some other material such as barley malt, it becomes a grain commodity which is the residue or byproduct of a manufacturing process. As such, it would be removed from the screenings provision and, for want of a specific tariff classification, would be relegated to the so-called catch-all provision for nonenumerated manufactured articles. That is the question presented in the pending case.

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Related

Fischer v. United States
38 C.C.P.A. 143 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1951)
United States v. Boone
188 F.2d 808 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1951)
Boone v. United States
25 Cust. Ct. 235 (U.S. Customs Court, 1950)
Maywood Chemical Works Monsanto Chemical Co. v. United States
22 Cust. Ct. 87 (U.S. Customs Court, 1949)
J. W. Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States
20 Cust. Ct. 66 (U.S. Customs Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 Cust. Ct. 62, 1947 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boone-v-united-states-cusc-1947.