Continental Exchange, Ltd. v. United States

60 Cust. Ct. 233, 281 F. Supp. 892, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2536
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1968
DocketC.D. 3333
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 60 Cust. Ct. 233 (Continental Exchange, Ltd. 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
Continental Exchange, Ltd. v. United States, 60 Cust. Ct. 233, 281 F. Supp. 892, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2536 (cusc 1968).

Opinion

Ford, Judge:

The imported merchandise in controversy herein consists of small, portable, rechargeable flashlights, illustrated by plaintiff’s exhibits 1 and 2, the first being open to expose its inner workings, the second representing the article intact. The merchandise was classified by the collector of customs under item 683.70, part 5, schedule 6 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States.

The plaintiff claims the merchandise is properly classifiable under item 685.70 of TSUS under the provision for bells and other sound or visual signalling apparatus, or, in the alternative, under item 683.80 of TSUS for “other” portable electric lamps.

The pertinent items of the statutes involved follow:

Tariff Schedules of the United States, part 5, schedule 6, item 683.70:

Portable electric lamps with self-contained electrical source, and parts thereof:

Flashlights and parts thereof_1-35% ad val.

[234]*234Tariff Schedules of the United States, part 5, schedule 6, item 683.80:

Portable electric lamps with self-contained electrical source, and parts thereof:
*******
Other_13.75% ad val

Tariff Schedules of the United States, part 5, schedule 6, item 685.70

Bells, sirens, indicator panels, burglar and fire alarms, and other sound or visual signalling apparatus, all the foregoing which are electrical and parts thereof-8.5% ad val

The crux of the controversy at bar centers around a blinking on and off feature of a red beam in a two-beam flashlight, the red and a clear white. The blinking feature, the plaintiff claims, is a warning-flasher or signalling device, which makes the flashlight more than a flashlight. The question at issue is whether the imported item was properly classified under TSUS item 683.70, or whether it is classifiable under either of the provisions claimed by the plaintiff.

The record herein is comprised of the testimony of one witness for the plaintiff and two samples of the merchandise aforementioned.

Mr. Louis Ruby testified for the plaintiff substantially as follows: He has been with the plaintiff about 3 years and is general manager in charge of the office, the warehouse, and sales. They are known as importers of a general line of merchandise. For some years prior to that he had been in the import business, selling in the main imported cigarette lighters. He was familiar with the merchandise at bar and identified it (exhibit 1) as representative of the imported article. He stated his company calls it a rechargeable emergency blinking flashlight. Pie identified the cardboard container as the package in which the article came from Japan. Instructions for its use and maintenance were printed on the cardboard container.

The witness demonstrated the operation of the flashlight before the court. By setting a switch on exhibit 1, the red light beam continued to flash on and off without continual holding.

Mr. Ruby stated that the article had “no actual battery” in it and that its power source was rechargeable by plugging the two prongs into an electrical wall socket. When the court inquired if the electricity was stored in the middle battery, the witness stated he was not sure, stating also that he was not familiar with the “inner makings of the item.” The witness took apart exhibit 1 and reiterated that it had no battery, stating however that there was an item in there that could be called a battery but he was not sure. He did not know the candle power or brilliance of the light and had never used it himself. Pie considered that its particular sales feature was its use as an emergency signal light. The witness admitted that he was not mechanically or electrically inclined.

[235]*235On cross-examination, the witness admitted that the article bad imprinted on it “Bechargeable Flashlight,” and that it was narrower and longer than a package of cigarettes, conld be carried in one’s pocket or purse, and conld be used to find a keyhole in a door at night, or searching for something in a purse.

At the conclusion of the trial, plaintiff introduced exhibit 2, being an intact replica of exhibit 1 which had been taken apart for demonstration during trial.

The position of the plaintiff herein is very similar to that in Remington Rand Div. of Sperry Rand Corp. v. United States, 49 Cust. Ct. 150, C.D. 2377; affirmed 51 CCPA 57, C.A.D. 837. In that case, the merchandise was rechargeable flashlights which were classified under paragraph 353 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (predecessor provision under which flashlights had been classified prior to TSUS), as articles having as an essential feature an electrical element or device. The flashlight unit there, as in the instant case, was enclosed in a plastic case, at the bottom of which a portion could be removed to expose a two-prong plug which could be inserted into an electric outlet to recharge the battery. Because of this recharging feature, the plaintiff there contended that the flashlight was more than a flashlight. This court rejected plaintiff’s contention, stating, at page 153:

In the case at bar, all we have is a flashlight which performs its end function of supplying light. This is accomplished in the same manner as any other flashlight, to wit, the current flow from the source of power, the battery, to the bulb. The recharging unit which is incorporated in the flashlight merely extends the life of the power source. Hence, the recharging unit does not make a flashlight anything more than a flashlight ivhen incorporated therein.

From the language of the statute under which the merchandise was classified, it is evident that flashlights have been excepted from the reduction granted by the Torquay protocol involved herein. In the case of C. J. Tower & Son v. United States, 2 Cust. Ct. 81, C.D. 92, flashlights were held to be properly classifiable under the provision for “articles having as an essential feature an electrical element or device * * This case is, therefore, controlling as to flashlights. The writer of this opinion in a recent decision, presently pending on appeal, Biddle Purchasing Co. v. United States, 48 Cust. Ct. 251, C.D. 2345,

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412 F. Supp. 585 (U.S. Customs Court, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
60 Cust. Ct. 233, 281 F. Supp. 892, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2536, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/continental-exchange-ltd-v-united-states-cusc-1968.