Columbia Malleable Castings Corp. v. United States

9 Cust. Ct. 214, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 790
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 28, 1942
DocketC. D. 697
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Cust. Ct. 214 (Columbia Malleable Castings Corp. 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
Columbia Malleable Castings Corp. v. United States, 9 Cust. Ct. 214, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 790 (cusc 1942).

Opinion

Dallinger, Judge:

This is a suit against the United States arising at the port of Buffalo brought to recover certain customs duties alleged to have been improperly exacted on a particular importation invoiced as “Rough Galv. Malleable Pipe Fttg Castings.” Duty was levied thereon at the rate of 45 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 397 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as articles composed of base metal not specially provided for. It is claimed that said merchandise is properly dutiable at only 20 per centum ad valorem under the provision in paragraph 327 of said act for castings of malleable iron not specially provided for. '

Said paragraph 327 reads:

Cast-iron pipe of every description, and cast-iron fittings for cast-iron pipe, 25 per centum ad valorem; cast-iron andirons, plates, stove plates, sadirons, tailors’ irons, hatters’ irons, but not including electric irons, and castings and vessels wholly of cast iron, including all castings of iron or cast-iron plates which have been chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process but not made up into'articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts; castings of malleable iron not specially provided for; * * * 20 per centum ad valorem * * *.

At the first hearing held at Buffalo on March 27, 1942, the plaintiff offered in evidence the testimony of two witnesses and numerous exhibits. Samples of the merchandise at bar were admitted in evidence as collective exhibit 1.

The plaintiff’s first witness, Charles G. Sherwin, purchasing agent' for the Grinnell Co. of Canada, testified that his company manufactured both black and galvanized malleable cast-iron fittings for the plumbing trade; that he saw all of the merchandise covered by the within protest before it was shipped from his factory in Toronto to the Columbia Malleable Castings Corporation of Columbia, Pa., the plaintiff herein; and that he prepared the consular invoice and attended to the transportation of the involved merchandise.

At this juncture the witness produced certain samples of galvanized cast-iron malleable elbows, tees, and couplings which were admitted in evidence, as collective illustrative exhibit 2.

The witness then proceeded to testify in part as follows:

Q. What is the distinction between fittings and castings?' — A. A casting is the unfinished product of a fitting.
Q. Are all of these [Collective Illustrative Exhibit 2] in the unfinished state?— A. They are all in the unfinished state.
Q. This is the state in which they were shipped by you to Columbia Malleable Castings, in the unfinished state? — A. Yes, sir.
[216]*216Q. Do you know what remains to be done to them to make them usable? — A. They have to be machined. * * *.
Q. Is it a single machining process, or a number? — A. Depending on what it is. In some cases it is single, and in some cases it is double, and in some cases it is triple.
Q. Are there different kinds or types of malleable iron castings? — A. Yes, black and galvanized * * *.

At this juncture a sample of a black malleable-iron casting was admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit A.

The witness after .describing the process of producing iron castings testified that after casting, the articles are put into annealing pots where they are annealed, which makes them malleable or flexible; that in his business he had handled finished pipe fittings as well as castings, a sample of such finished pipe fittings being admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit B; that a pipe fitting is a finished product used for attaching pipes together; that there is no difference between malleable-iron castings and castings of malleable iron; that his company issued a catalog, pages 39, 40, and 41 of which show illustrations of several kinds of castings such as are involved in the present suit, said pages being admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit C; and that galvanizing is applied to a casting to keep it from rusting, which process necessarily increases its price.

On cross-examination the witness testified that so-called “chamfer-ing” is part of the threading of the casting; that the articles constituting the imported merchandise at bar are all standard sizes and when threaded constitute plumbers’ standard equipment; that an order from a customer would have to indicate whether the malleable-iron castings were or were not to be galvanized; and that the process of galvanizing improves the condition of the article.

The plaintiff’s second witness, A. L. Mettler, cost accountant in the employ of the plaintiff-corporation since 1937, testified that his company dealt equally in both black rough iron and galvanized rough iron castings; that he saw the merchandise at bar when it was received at his company’s factory at Columbia, Pa., and that upon its receipt the merchandise was threaded and chamfered.

The witness then, produced a finished, tee similar to one manufactured from one of -the imported articles which was admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit D, and testified that in billing merchandise similar to collective exhibit 1 and illustrative exhibit A the witness specified in his invoices and bills of lading that the merchandise consisted of rough iron castings either black or galvanized.

On cross-examination, the witness testified that when he used the word “rough” in his direct testimony he meant to indicate that the castings had not been machined, that is, they had not been threaded or chamfered.

[217]*217At tbe second hearing held at New York on June 8, 1942, the plaintiff offered in evidence the testimony of two additional witnesses. The first, H.

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Bluebook (online)
9 Cust. Ct. 214, 1942 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/columbia-malleable-castings-corp-v-united-states-cusc-1942.