Dorward & Sons Co. v. United States

40 C.C.P.A. 159, 1953 CCPA LEXIS 259
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 1953
DocketNo. 4679
StatusPublished

This text of 40 C.C.P.A. 159 (Dorward & Sons 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
Dorward & Sons Co. v. United States, 40 C.C.P.A. 159, 1953 CCPA LEXIS 259 (ccpa 1953).

Opinion

Worley, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Tbis is an appeal from the judgment of tbe United States Customs Court, First Division, rendered pursuant to its decision, C. D. 1290] overruling the protests of appellants against the assessment of an import tax on rapeseed oil by the Collector of Customs at the port of San Francisco.

The appeal was originally argued before this court on December 5, 1951, and on March 18, 1952, we rendered our decision which affirmed the judgment of the United States Customs Court. On April 15, 1952, appellants filed a petition for rehearing specifying “points supposed to have been overlooked or misapprehended by the Court, in that decision.”

The petition was granted and argument was had thereon December 10, 1952.

The facts are as follows:

Merchandise, consisting of two shipments of refined rapeseed oil, was admitted free of duty under paragraph 1732 of the Tariff Act of 1930 but was assessed with an import tax by the collector at the rate of 4}( cents per pound pursuant to section 2491 (b) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U. S. C., sec. 2491 (b)).

Appellants protested the action of the collector, contending that the rapeseed oil in question was free of the tax, as provided for in section 2491 (f). The involved subsections read as follows:

(b) Sesame oil provided for in paragraph 1732 of the Tariff Act of 1930, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, kapok oil, hempseed oil, perilla oil, fatty acids derived from any of the foregoing or from linseed oil, and salts of any of the foregoing; all the foregoing, whether or not refined, sulphonated, sulphated, hydrogenated, or otherwise processed, 4K cents per pound;
(f) The tax imposed under subsection (b) shall not apply to rapeseed oil imported to be used in the manufacture of rubber substitutes or lubricating oil, and the Commissioner of Customs shall, with the approval of the Secretary, prescribe methods and regulations to carry out this subsection.

[161]*161In answer to the protests, tbe Collector of Customs responded that such “rapeseed oil was not used in the manufacture of rubber substitutes (T. D. 49643 (6)), but was used in lieu of rubber, in the manufacture of caulking compounds, as stated in attached affidavits.” The protests were consolidated for trial. The record consists of a stipulation of facts between counsel for the parties and two exhibits, one being a bottle of “Refined Rapeseed Oil,”, the other a bottle of “Blown Rapeseed Oil.”

The stipulation reads as follows:

* * * that as hereinafter described the oil in question was converted into the form of blown oil and in that condition was used in lieu of rubber in the manufacture of caulking compound, that a caulking compound is not a substitute for rubber and that the other ingredients of the caulking compound were not rubber, that the aforesaid conversion into blown oil was accomplished as follows: The imported oil was subjected to a blowing process under conditions of temperature and air input which are controlled automatically and are accompanied by repeated samplings by technicians, careful processing being required to prevent over-polymerization, undue viscosity, and acidity, and undesirable qualities other than those. This treatment of rapeseed oil alters its character in many respects of commercial and technical significance: Its composition is changed by the addition of oxygen; its viscosity is increased 100 times or more; its specific gravity from .93 to 1.1; its acidity roughly from 3 to 6; its titer or solid fix point from minus-10 to plus 10 degrees C.; its saponification value from 70 to 200; and its refractive index from 1.465 to 1.58; and its iodine value decreases from 95 to 70; and it becomes wax-like instead of fluid, darker in color, and inedible; that two bottles here were labeled respectively “Refined Rapeseed Oil,” and “Blown Rapeseed Oil,” may be admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibits A and B as representing respectively the rapeseed oil as imported, and the blown rapeseed oil as used in the manufacture of caulking compound as above stipulated; that the customs-regulations pertaining to rapeseed oil used in the manufacture of rubber substitutes under Section 2491 (f) of the Internal Revenue Code were complied with by plaintiffs.

Appellants argue here, as below, that the above statute sets up two-express conditions of exemption; namely, (1) “manufacture” of the rapeseed oil into something which (2) is a “rubber substitute” (or lubricant). Appellants contend that the imported oil met those two conditions by (1) being “converted”- — -that is “manufactured” — into-a new and different article by being blown or oxidized and (2) in that form becoming a “rubber substitute” by being used “in lieu of rubber,” as set out in the stipulation. Stated in other words, the alleged manufacturing process transformed the rapeseed oil per se into a rubber substitute.

Counsel for the Government did not concede that such a process-amounted to a “manufacture” but argued that even under such an. assumption the question was immaterial because blown rapeseed oil was not a recognized rubber substitute.

The Customs Court did not determine whether the described process-was actually a manufacture but did hold that the record was insufficient to find that blown rapeseed oil was in fact a rubber substitute.

[162]*162The court, accordingly, overruled appellants’ protests and denied a petition for rehearing. From that judgment this appeal was taken.

The sole question presented here is whether the agreed facts in the stipulation are sufficient to bring the imported oil within the provisions of section 2491 (f), supra.

In resolving that question we are giving the stipulation full weight, Pacific Trading Co. v. United States, 19 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 361, T. D. 45508, and applying the usual and ordinary meaning to the language used in said stipulation and in the controlling statute. Old Colony Railroad Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 284 U. S. 552, 560.

It is to be noted that the statute specifically provides that the tax {‘* * * shall not apply to rapeseed oil imported to be used in the manufacture of rubber substitutes * *

As hereinbefore noted, while the Customs Court did not pass upon the question of whether the process referred to actually amounted to a “manufacture” within the meaning of the statute, it did hold that the stipulation was insufficient to justify a finding that blown rapeseed oil was in fact a “rubber substitute.” In view of our disposition of this appeal, it is not necessary for us to discuss the first point.

In its decision, the Customs Court discussed at some length the respective meanings of the words “substitute” and “in lieu of,” citing with approval the following excerpt from the case of Bulova Watch Co. v. United States, 21 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 156, T. D. 46494:

The word “substitute” has a very general meaning and its particular meaning in a given relation can not be determined alone from its general meaning. To illustrate, in one sense of the word, mineral water is a substitute for beer in that both beverages are used to quench thirst, but it would hardly be said that if, in addition to a tariff duty on beer, there should be a.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Old Colony Railroad v. Commissioner
284 U.S. 552 (Supreme Court, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 C.C.P.A. 159, 1953 CCPA LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dorward-sons-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1953.