Decorated Metal Manufacturing Co. v. United States

12 Ct. Cust. 140, 1924 WL 26703, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 31
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 3, 1924
DocketNo. 2342
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 12 Ct. Cust. 140 (Decorated Metal Manufacturing Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Decorated Metal Manufacturing Co. v. United States, 12 Ct. Cust. 140, 1924 WL 26703, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 31 (ccpa 1924).

Opinion

MartiN, Presiding Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise now in question was imported under the tariff act of 1922. It consisted of typewriter ribbon spools, which are the familiar rotating metal spools used to carry the rolls of print ribbon upon typewriters and other similar machines. The collector classified them as parts of typewriters, and admitted them to free entry under the provision for typewriters whether in whole or in parts, in paragraph 1542 of the act.

The appellant, the Decorated Metal Manufacturing Co. (Inc.), is an American manufacturer of similar metal spools, and in due course it filed a protest with the collector under section 516 (/;) of the act, denying that the imported spools were entitled to free entry, and claiming that they were dutiable at the rate of 40 per cent ad valorem under paragraph 399, as manufactures of iron or steel not specially provided for, or at the rate of 30 per cent ad valorem under paragraph 372, as machines or parts thereof not specially provided for, or at certain other alternative rates set out in the protest.

The protest was regularly tried upon evidence before the Board of General Appraisers, and was overruled. From that judgment of the board the protestant now appeals.

The following three paragraphs, copied respectively from the tariff acts of 1909, 1913, and 1922, relate to the present subject:

Tariff act of 1909 (dutiable list).
197. Cash registers, jute manufacturing machinery, linotype and all typesetting machines, machine tools, printing presses, sewing machines, typewriters, and all steam engines, * * * thirty per centum ad valorem; * * *.
Tariff act of 1913 (free list.)
441. Cash registers, linotype and all type-setting machines, sewing machines, typewriters, shoe machinery, cream separators valued at not exceeding $75, sand-blast machines, sludge machines, and tar and oil spreading machines used [142]*142in the construction and maintenance of roads and in improving them by the use of road preservatives, all the foregoing whether imported in whole or in parts, including repair parts.
Tariff act of 1922 (free list).
1542. Linotype and all typesetting machines, typewriters, shoe machinery, sand-blast machines, sludge machines, and tar and oil spreading machines used in the construction and -maintenance of roads and in improving them by the use of road preservatives; all the foregoing whether in whole or in parts, including repair parts.

It appears that typewriters were not enumerated eo nomine in any tariff act prior to that of 1909. Under paragraph 197 of that act typewriters together with cash registers, jute manufacturing machinery, linotype and all typesetting machines; machine tools, printing presses, sewing machines, and steam engines were made dutiable eo nomine at the rate of 30 per cent ad valorem. The paragraph, however, failed to make provision for parts of any of the machines thus enumerated, and accordingly such parts remained dutiable in general at the rate of 45 per cent ad valorem as manufactures of metal not specially provided for, under paragraph 199 of the act. —Norma Co. of America v. United States (6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 89; T. D. 35338).

In the tariff act of 1913 (par. 441), Congress placed typewriters eo nomine upon the free list, together with most of the other articles named in paragraph 197 of the tariff act of 1909. The later enactment contained also the following provision for parts of the enumerated articles, to wit, “all the foregoing whether imported in whole or in parts, including repair parts.” It appears from the testimony in the present record that under this provision in the tariff act of 1913 typewriter spools like those now in question were regularly passed free of duty as typewriter parts, and that this administrative practice continued uninterruptedly during the entire life time of that act. In the tariff act of 1922 (par. 1542), Congress again placed typewriters eo nomine upon the free list, with a substantially similar provision for parts, the latter reading as follows, to wit, “all the foregoing whether in whole or in parts, including repair parts.” Under this paragraph the administrative practice above referred to was continued, and typewriter spools like these were regularly passed free of duty. That practice, however, was challenged by the protest in this case.

In this court the appellant has presented three main contentions in support of the protest. It claims first that the imported spools are not in fact parts of typewriters within the meaning of paragraph 1542; second, that they bear a commercial designation which excludes them from classification as such parts; and third, that paragraph 1542 if properly interpreted does not grant free entry to for[143]*143eign-made spools of tbis character when imported, as these conced-edly were, to serve as parts of American-made machines.

In answer to the first contention we may say that it is well within common knowledge that typewriters are usually, and indeed almost invariably, equipped with metal ribbon spools like these, and that the machines are incapable of performing their ordinary functions without them. In fact the inked ribbon by means of which the printing is accomplished is one of the most familiar and distinctive parts entering into the construction of the article. It is not simply a casual or optional accessory, but an integral part of the machine itself, and the spool which carries it is of course equally so. It appears that such' spools are chiefly produced by manufacturers who do not make completed typewriters or other parts thereof. They are sold to the manufacturers of typewriters, but in most part they are sold directly to the users thereof. It also appears that typewriters are sometimes used for stencil work and carbon copies without the use of ribbons; and that such ribbons are sometimes used upon other machines, such as adding machine and automatic electrical telegraph machines. These facts, however, -are exceptional, and do not negative the averment that in common understanding a typewriter without ribbon spools would not be regarded as a' finished article, but as one lacking an essential component part. In the case of Durbrow & Hearne Mfg. Co. v. United States (9 Ct. Cust. Appls. 178; T. D. 39008), this court held that certain steel shuttles "came within the enumeration of parts of sewing machines, notwithstanding the fact that the shuttles were chiefly used in this country in embroidery machines, and that the manufacture of shuttles was a separate industry which produced them for sale to both the manufacturer and user of sewing and embroidery machines. See American Express Co. v. United States (4 Ct. Cust. Appls. 279; T. D. 33490); Welte & Sons v. United States (5 id. 164; T. D. 34249); Landay Bros. v. United States (5 id. 498; T. D. 35151); United States v. Witte Cutlery Co. (7 id. 181; T. D. 36504) and United States v. Auto Import Co. (168 Fed. 242).

In respect to the effort of the protestant to prove a commercial usage of the terms involved herein, such as would exclude the ribbon spools from classification as parts of typewriters, we think that the board’s finding is altogether consistent with the evidence.

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12 Ct. Cust. 140, 1924 WL 26703, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/decorated-metal-manufacturing-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1924.