Downing & Co. v. United States

6 Ct. Cust. 447, 1915 WL 20668, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 122
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedDecember 6, 1915
DocketNo. 1555
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 6 Ct. Cust. 447 (Downing & 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
Downing & Co. v. United States, 6 Ct. Cust. 447, 1915 WL 20668, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 122 (ccpa 1915).

Opinion

De Vries, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court;

. This appeal brings here for decision the proper classification of certain cotton covers. They were classified for dutiable purposes by the collector of customs at the port of New York as “ articles made or cut from plushes, velvets,” etc., under the provisions of paragraph 257 of the tariff act of 1913. The claims relied upon by the importers at the hearing before the Board of General Appraisers were diverse as to the different imported articles. One of the samples has the appearance of, and is concededly, a small table cover. The other is larger in size, obviously representative of a completed article made up ready for use, and of an appropriate size for rugs. It, however, is lighter in weight than is a rug ordinarily and contains no fringe at the ends. The former was conceded by the importer not to be a rug, but the latter was claimed by them such. That claim was overruled by the Board of General Appraisers and is reasserted in this court. Accordingly it is claimed here as to the latter article that it is dutiable as “ rugs of cotton ” under the provisions of paragraph ■ [448]*448302 of said act. The alternative claim is made as to that article and is also extended to the remaining goods of the importation, that they are dutiable as “Jacquard figured upholstery goods” under the provisions of paragraph 258 of the act. The provisions in order may be quoted as follows: .

257. Plushes, velvets, plush or velvet ribbons, velveteens, corduroys, and all pile fabrics, cut or uncut, whether or not the pile covers the entire surface; any of the foregoing composed wholly or in chief value of cotton or other-vegetable fiber, except flax, hemp, or ramie; and manufactures or articles in any form, including such as are commonly known as bias dress facings or skirt bindings, made or cut from plushes, velvets, velveteens, corduroys, or other pile fabrics composed of cotton or other vegetable fiber, except flax, hemp, or ramie, 40 per centum ad valorem.
302. Carpets and carpeting of wool or cotton, or composed in part of either of them, not specially provided for in this section, and on mats, matting, and •rugs of cotton, 20 per centum ad valorem.
258. 'Curtains, table covers, and all articles manufactured of cotton chenille, or of which cotton chenille is the component material of chief value, tapestries, a,nd other Jacquard figured upholstery goods, composed wholly or in chief value of cotton or other vegetable fiber; any of the foregoing, in the piece or otherwise, 35 per centum ad valorem; all other Jacquard figured manufactures of cotton or of which cotton is the component material of chief value, 30 per centum ad valorem.

Primarily it may be said that as to the claim of the importers that said part of the merchandise was dutiable as “rugs of cotton,” the Board of General Appraisers overruled this contention, and that no assignment of error is had as to their action in that particular. The pertinent testimony was to the effect, and that result is shown by the testimony of the importer himself, that these articles, when sold in the retail trade as rugs, have proven unsatisfactory, that they are so light that they are easily worn and so crumple and roll under the feet as to be entirely unsatisfactory and unfit for use as such. Upon this state of facts we think the conclusion of the board that they were not ratable for duty as rugs of cotton sound upon the merits.

The Board of General Appraisers also overruled the alternative claim of the importers that the merchandise was properly ratable for duty as “Jacquard figured upholstery goods” under the provisions of paragraph 258. The board was partially moved to this conclusion, as its opinion indicates, and as the counsel for the Government contends in this court, by its decision in G. A. 7472 (T. D. 33577). That decision was under the tariff act of 1909. It is strongly urged by the Government in this court that said decision is stare deeisis here, in that, having been rendered prior to the enactment of the tariff act of 1913 upon claimed identical subject matter and the pertinent paragraph having been reenacted in the precise words of its ancestral legislation, there was thereby a legislative classification of the merchandise. Conceding on a proper state of facts that-[449]*449such would have been true, there is absent in this particular another essential. In the case relied upon, which arose under the tariff act of 1909, though Jacquard figured upholstery goods were provided for in that act by paragraph 326, the point was not raised or decided in that case whether or not the goods were dutiable as such thereunder. We do not think, in that view, legislative classification can' be claimed. It was no more than tantamount to holding that the goods were not “ cotton rugs ” but were articles made from velvets, etc. It did not consider or decide whether or not they were equally or more specifically provided for in paragraph 326 as “Jacquard figured upholstery goods.”

The question is presented, therefore, which is the more specific or controlling herein, the provision for “ Jacquard figured upholstery goods, composed wholly or in chief value of cotton or other vegetable fiber, any of the foregoing, in the piece or otherwise,” under paragraph 258; or the provision for “ manufactures or articles in any form, including such as are commonly known as bias .dress facings or skirt bindings, made or cut from plushes, velvets, velveteens, corduroys, or other pile fabrics, composed of cotton or other vegetable fiber, except flax, hemp, or ramie,” under paragraph 257. The argument proceeded upon the assumption that the claimed applicable provision of paragraph 257 provided only for “ articles,” whereas in measuring the relative specificity or applicability of the pertinent parts of the two paragraphs we must not overlook the fact that the term of paragraph 257 is expressly extended to “ manufactures ” as well as “ articles ” made or cut from plushes, etc. The competition is between the phrases and the whole thereof, and not segregated portions. It is not permissible to thus ignore a portion of the predication of “ made or cut from.”

Likewise the provisions of paragraph 258, relative to Jacquard figured-upholstery goods, are by the express terms of that paragraph extended to such “ in the piece or otherwise.”

The latitude of the latter provision was before this court, and received interpretation in a decision rendered since the board decision in this case — Carter & Son v. United States (6 Ct. Cust Appls., 253; T. D. 35475). In that case it was pointed out by this court that “ the intent appears to be manifest to make the use to which a narrowly prescribed class of goods is devoted the test of its classification.” The court further observed “these provisions must have been intended to invade the other paragraphs of the tariff act and to remove or leave out of such paragraphs the goods answering to this particular and specific description.”

The rule is not one resting in relative specificity so much as in the obvious intent of Congress to select goods of a specified class, here [450]*450designated by and according to their use, and rate them at a uniform rate of duty. The application of the rule is more in harmony with than at variance from the rule of specific description and does no violence to any well-recognized principle of tariff interpretation.

The principle and its application find parallel and precedent in Magone v.

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6 Ct. Cust. 447, 1915 WL 20668, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/downing-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1915.