Consolidated International Equipment & Supply Co. v. United States

63 Cust. Ct. 230, 327 F. Supp. 556, 1969 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3767
United States Customs Court·Decided October 16, 1969·No. C.D. 3901·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Foed, Judge:

The cases listed above, consolidated for the purpose of trial, were the subject of a decision in Consolidated International Equipment & Supply Co. v. United States, 58 Cust. Ct. 329, C.D. 2978 (1967). The merchandise involved consists of certain Multineg machines which were classified under the provisions of paragraph 353, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 86 Treas. Dec. 121, T.D. 52739, as articles having as an essential feature an electrical element or device and assessed with duty at the rate of 13% per centum ad valorem.

Plaintiff in the case at bar, by amendment, claims the machines are entitled to entry free of duty under the provisions of paragraph 1643, Tariff Act of 1930, as typesetting machines. The original claim as printing machinery under paragraph 372, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified, not having been pressed, is deemed abandoned and is hereby dismissed.

The pertinent portions of the statutes involved read as follows:

Paragraph 353 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by T.D. 52739:
Articles 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, finished or unfinished, wholly or in chief value of metal, and not specially provided for:
Other (except * * *)- 13%% ad val.
Paragraph 1643 of the Tariff Act of 1930:
Linotype and all typesetting machines, * * *; all the foregoing whether in whole or in part, * * *-- Free

The record herein consists of the testimony taken and the exhibits received in the previous case, C.D. 2978, supra, which was incorporated herein. No further evidence was adduced. The function of the involved machines was described in the decision in the incorporated case as follows:

The mechanism, or device, at bar is one in which a negative (produced by a photographic camera) is placed in contact with a sensitized plate, to make a positive image of the negative. What differentiates this particular mechanism is that through a system of precise measurements and controls it will automatically pro[232]*232duce on the plate, not just one image, but repeated images covering the entire plate, through what is called a step-and-repeat process. As the plate emerges from the device when this operation is completed, the plate is ready to be inserted in a photo-offset machine which will do a print job from this plate. The sheet which comes from the photo-offset machine will, therefore, be roughly comparable to a sheet of stamps, in that it shows many identical prints. It is the automatic step-and-repeat function used in preparing the plate for use in the photo-offset machine that distinguishes the device at bar, which is called a Multineg.

It is the position of plaintiff that the decision in Lanston Industries, Inc. v. United States, 49 CCPA 123, C.A.D. 807 (1962), is controlling herein. The Lanston case, supra, involved the proper classification of certain monophoto machines which were classified as photographic cameras and parts under paragraph 1551, Tariff Act of 1930, and claimed to be typesetting machines under paragraph 1643, Tariff Act of 1930. The court therein made the following observation of the function of the monophoto machine.

* * * We are constrained to agree with appellant’s statement in its brief: “The fact of the matter is that this apparatus has only one function — it sets type on sensitized paper [or it may be on film].” [Our emphasis.] Appellant quotes its witness as saying of the Monophoto machine:
Q. * * * What is the objective of that machine; what is its function and purpose ?
A. Its function is to produce composed type to be used for printing by either offset or gravuire process. [Our emphasis.]
It will be observed that the single function of the machine has been stated to be both setting and composing type and therein lies the answer to the issue in this case, for, as is amply borne out by the dictionaries, setting and composing are one and the same thing. To go back to the 1913 Funk & Wagnalls cited above, under “composition” it states, “Print. The act or process of setting type for printing.” Webster’s New International Dictionary (1937) under “compose” says, “5. Print, To arrange (type) in a composing stick in order for printing; to set (type).” Under “composition” it again says, “16. Print. The setting up, arranging, and imposing of type.” We may even refer in support of this conclusion to the definition quoted in the Government’s brief of a “typesetting machine” (Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd Edition) :
Any of various keyboard machines for automatically composing printers’ types. * * * Those chiefly used at present are the type-casting machines: the Linotype, invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler (1878), and the Monotype, invented by Tolbert Lanston (1885). [Our emphasis.]
* * * In the Monotype the matrix is metal and the characters are in the form of itaglio mold cavities into which molten type [233]*233metal is injected, one at a time; in the Monophoto machine the matrix carries the characters (which are in the same type of matrix holder for use with the same type of positioning mechanism) as transparent areas through winch a light beam passes, tc expose them through an optical system on a photosensitive surface. In the former case, type is composed or set m metal; in the latter case, type is set or composed photographically on a strip of sensitized paper or film. Both machines are used in the same trade by the same people for substantially the same purposes, the ultimate production of printing plates which are used to print with ink on paper. Furthermore, the typesetter or compositor, who as a person initiating the entire operation actually sets or composes the type, uses the same keyboard to punch the same paper tape whether the final act in the setting or composing process is done by the Monotype machine in metal or the Mono-photo machine on film.
The witness, who was expert in this field, constantly referred to the hot metal, or Monotype process, as the old-fashioned process.

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Consolidated International Equipment & Supply Co. v. United States, 63 Cust. Ct. 230, 327 F. Supp. 556, 1969 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3767 (cusc 1969).

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