Color Photograph Supply Co. v. United States

11 Cust. Ct. 163, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3043
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1943
DocketC. D. 817
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Cust. Ct. 163 (Color Photograph Supply 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
Color Photograph Supply Co. v. United States, 11 Cust. Ct. 163, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3043 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Lawrence, Judge:

In this case the collector of customs classified a so-called "emulsion coating machine with reeler for photo paper” under the provision in paragraph 353 of the Tariff Act of 1930 for [164]*164“articles having as an essential feature an electrical element or device/' .and assessed duty accordingly at the rate of 35 per centum ad valorem.

The only claim of the plaintiff is that the importation is properly dutiable at the rate of 27K per centum ad valorem under paragraph 372 of said act as a machine or parts thereof not specially provided for.

Apparently it is not disputed that the article is in fact a machine in chief value of metal. However, if it has as an essential feature an electrical element or device within the meaning of said paragraph 353, it would clearly be more specifically provided for therein than under said paragraph 372, as claimed by the plaintiff.

The sole witness who appeared herein testified for the plaintiff that he was familiar with the importation in controversy and was in charge of the men who assembled and installed the machine and put it in running order.

Asked to give a general description of the machine he replied:

Essentially the machine, shall I say, took long strips of paper, dipped them in molten gelatin which carried the various pigments we used, passed the paper through chilling chambers and then hung them in festoons to dry.

When asked “* * * what electric parts were part of this importation?” the witness answered:

There were no electric parts that I know of. It was just barely framework. It was framework, tables, boxes, chilling boxes. There were no coils or condensers on it.

It further appears from the testimony of the witness that the machine “extended two floors in height,” and measured 75 feet in length; that after importation it was installed with a switchboard having “stop” and “go” switches on both floors to control the blowers and the main motor drive; that a so-called relay “worked” one of the “stop” and “go” switches because it fed a 5-horsepower motor, and that there is not a switch that could really handle that capacity; that the switch goes to the relay which throws the power into the motor; and that that was part of the installation that “we” made. Other parts supplied from domestic equipment consisted of “the main drive, 5-horsepower motor and 2 motors attached to the blowing fans,” these being 1-horsepower motors.

To quote further from the testimony of the witness:

* * *. There were the switches involved in starting and stopping the motors and the relays in starting and stopping the main motor, which was the 5-horse-power. We also installed a heating element, and a pump to circulate warm water around the trough which contained the gelatin. Also, there was a system for intercommunication between the two floors.
*******
The main motor was connected to the machines through a Reeves drive, which is a variable drive governing the speed, to a belt.

[165]*165To the question: “Were all the motors connected to the machine with the use of a belt and mechanism as you have described?” the witness replied: “The main drive was, yes, and the fans were also connected by belts.”

While it appears from the foregoing that the mechanism was driven by electric power, the witness testified that “the machine came equipped with a large drive shaft and pulley,” to which pulley “anything could be connected as long as it would revolve the shaft”; that no changes would have to be made in the machine itself to connect it to some source of power other than electricity, and that the cost of such substitution of power would be relatively inexpensive compared with the cost of the machine.

Furthermore, the witness testified that while the machine was equipped with a pumping arrangement for circulating the water, operated by a small motor which was part of the pumping device,, nevertheless the machine was adapted for “any-kind of pump on it — - any power to the pump.”

Although the machine when shipped to the United' States was equipped with a thermostat and a mercury switch, they were, as testified by the witness, broken in transit, and inasmuch as it was impossible to have them replaced they were eliminated altogether, and the machine was operated by a thermometer in lieu of a thermostat, by means of which the operator watched the temperature. These facts were of course not known to the classifying officer at the time of importation.

With these essential facts before us, and upon the entire record, the question for determination by us is whether the importation is properly subject to classification under the third subdivision of said paragraph 353 as an article “having as an essential feature an electrical element or device, such as electric motors, fans, locomotives, portable tools;, furnaces, heaters, ovens, ranges, washing machines, refrigerators, and signs,” and as such dutiable at the rate of 35 per centum ad valorem. If not so classifiable, the article is clearly subject to classification under paragraph 372 of said act as a machine or parts thereof not specially provided for, and as such dutiable at the rate of 27)4 per centum ad valorem.

An examination of some of the leading authorities upon this subject satisfies us, after reviewing the evidence herein, that the classification of this importation under paragraph 353, sufra, cannot be sustained.

In our opinion, this case is,controlled by the principles enunciated by our appellate court in United States v. Dryden Rubber Co., 22 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 51, T. D. 47050, and Ralph C. Coxhead Corp. v. United States, 22 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 96, T. D. 47080.

In those cases the court laid down the rule that if an imported article is designed and constructed to use, and does, use, electrical power [166]*166solely and not interchangeably for its intended purpose, that article together with its parts must be deemed to be covered by the provision for articles having as an essential feature an electrical element or device within the intendment of said paragraph 353.

The merchandise before the court in the Dryden case, supra, was a machine about 6 feet wide and about 10 feet long, having a platform which carried rubber cake under a cutting device which sliced the cake. Two electric motors accompanied the machine, one of which furnished the motive power for the machine, while the other supplied motive power to operate two small emery wheels which were in constant contact with the blade of the cutting device to keep it sharp.

The court found it unnecessary to decide whether the presence of the small motor would constitute the article an electrical machine within the statute, in view of the conclusion it, reached as to the large motor.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Cust. Ct. 163, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3043, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/color-photograph-supply-co-v-united-states-cusc-1943.