Drakenfeld & Co. v. United States

9 Ct. Cust. 124, 1919 WL 21371, 1919 CCPA LEXIS 22
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedApril 1, 1919
DocketNo. 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 9 Ct. Cust. 124 (Drakenfeld & 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
Drakenfeld & Co. v. United States, 9 Ct. Cust. 124, 1919 WL 21371, 1919 CCPA LEXIS 22 (ccpa 1919).

Opinion

De Vries, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal has been presented with exceptional fullness of the record and ability of argument both in the briefs and at the oral hearing before .this court. It is agreed that its final determination rests upon the proposition of law as to which of two provisions of the tariff act of 1913, hereinafter quoted, controls. The merchandise was invoiced as “Dunkelpurpur,” meaning dark purple. It is conceded by all parties to be a ceramic color” and also a “mixture of which gold constitutes the element of chief value,” within both of the competing provisions of the said act, which are paragraphs 63 and 65, reading:

63. Enamel paints, and all paints, colors, pigments, stains, crayons, including charcoal crayons or fusains, smalts, and'frostings, and all ceramic and glass fluxes, glazes, enamels, and colors, whether crude, dry, mixed, or ground with water or oil or with solutions other than oil, not specially provided for in this section, 15 per centum ad valorem; all paints, colors, and pigments commonly known as artists’ paints or colors, whether in tubes, pans, cakes, or other forms, 20 per centum ad valorem; all color lakes, whether dry or in pulp, not specially provided for in this section, 20 per centum ad valorem.
65. Salts and other compounds and mixtures of which bismuth, gold, platinum, rhodium, silver, or tin constitute the element of chief value, 10 per centum ad valorem.

The collector of customs at the port of New fork classified the importation for dutiable purposes as a “ceramic color” under the former paragraph, and, upon due protest, by a majority decision, the Board of General Appraisers overruled the contention of the importers that the importation was properly ratable for duty as a “mixture in chief value of gold,” under the latter paragraph. The importers appeal.

More concisely contrasted, the competing provisions of the statute may be stated as follows:

63. * * * Ceramic * * * colors, whether crude, dry, mixed, or ground with water or oil or with solutions other than oil, not specially provided for in this section, * * *.
65. Salts and other compounds and mixtures of which * * * gold, * * constitute the element of chief value, * * *.

It being conceded that the importation falls within both said provisions, the single determinative issue is presented, the parties hereto agree, which of the two was intended by Congress to be controlling as to this particular class of merchandise.

The court is of the opinion that it is concluded herein by its previous decision, in Drakenfeld & Co. v. United States (2 Ct. Cust. Appls., 512; T. D. 32248).

[126]*126Ceramic colors are those colors used in the ceramics or pottery arts. The phrase is a description by use, and this use of particular colors is emphasized by its contrasted employment with the word “colors” previously employed generally by Congress in the same paragraph. Its qualified use here makes certain the deliberate purpose of Congress in its second engrossment. By this phrase after legislating with reference to all “ colors,” generally, Congress has expressly named for inclusion within the same paragraph certain colors according to their use, to wit, in the ceramics.

In the Drakenfeld case, supra, the contest was upon an importa-of “cadmium sulphide” or “cadmium yellow,” the issue being whether it was properly classifiable as a “pigment” or “color,” under paragraph 58 of the tariff act of 1897, or as a “chemical compound or salt,” under paragraph 3 of that act. This court said (at p. 513):

It seems from the testimony and authorities that the article at bar is certainly a pigment or color, and that it is also just as certainly a chemical compound or salt; and that it might aptly be classified under either of the competing paragraphs in the absence of the other one.

Further, the court said (at p. 514):

As applied to the article in hand, it seems that the term “ pigment or color ” is more limited and specific than the term “chemical compound or salt.” The article is in substance a chemical,compound or salt, and such is its generic classification; but it is a specific kind of chemical compound or salt, namely, one which is used as a pigment or color. By the latter description a limitation is imposed upon the former one. By nature and composition the substance in question is essentially a chemical compound, but it belongs to a species of that general class, namely, the species of chemical compounds which is especially used as a pigment or color. A similar question arose in the case of Fink v. United States (170 U. S., 584).

Commenting upon the case of Fink v. United States, supra, the court further said:

A similar question arose in the case of Fink v. United States (170 U. S., 584). In that case the article involved was muriate of cocaine. The competing paragraphs were those severally providing for “medicinal preparations” and “chemical compounds and salts.” It was held that the article (muriate of'cocaine) was both a medicinal preparation and a chemical compound or salt, but that the description by use, as a medicinal preparation, was more specific than that by composition, as a chemical compound or salt, because it specified a particular and limited class or species of such substances by force of that qualification.

The doctrine of the decision was precisely stated by the court (at p. 515), as follows:

It, therefore, appears that this designation according to a specific use should now prevail over a competing description of a general character, without special limitation as to use or other qualification.

That view accords with and is supported by the well-settled doctrine of this and the Supreme Court of the United States. United States v. Snow’s United States Sample Express Co. (8 Ct. Cust. Appls., 351; [127]*127T. D. 37611); United States v. Lorsch & Co. (8 Ct. Cust. Appls., 109; T. D. 37222); Monticelli Bros, et al. v. United States (8 Ct. Cust. Appls., 21; T. D. 37162); Brown & Co. v. United States (7 Ct. Cust. Appls., 309; T. D. 36871); Auffmordt & Co. et al. v. United States (7 Ct. Cust. Appls., 66; T. D. 36320); United States v. Boker & Co. (6 Ct. Cust. Appls., 243-5; T. D. 35472); Quirk et al. v. United States (6 Ct. Cust. Appls., 444; T. D. 35983); United States v. Tower (6 Ct. Cust. Appls., 562; T. D. 36199).

In United States v. Boker & Co., supra, this 'court expressed the rule and cited supporting authorities as follows:

Much, stress is laid upon the words “ all other agricultural implements of any kind and description.” While the words “of any kind and description” are broad and most comprehensive,-we must bear in mind that they are predicated of and limited to “agricultural implements,” and therefore can not include more than those terms embrace, though of course their effect and office is to exhaust everything within that literal confinement. We are accordingly relegated to those words as above defined for the scope of this phrase and paragraph.

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9 Ct. Cust. 124, 1919 WL 21371, 1919 CCPA LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/drakenfeld-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1919.