Erie Technological Products, Inc. v. United States

65 Cust. Ct. 538, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2987
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 25, 1970
DocketC.D. 4134
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 65 Cust. Ct. 538 (Erie Technological Products, Inc. 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
Erie Technological Products, Inc. v. United States, 65 Cust. Ct. 538, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2987 (cusc 1970).

Opinion

LaNdis, Judge:

The broad question for decision in this case is whether “platinum black”, imported from England in August and September 1965, is an unwrought platinum metal free of duty under TSUS (Tariff Schedules of the United States) item 605.02, as plaintiff claims, or a semimanufactured platinum metal, dutiable at 40 per centum ad valorem under TSUS item 605.08, as classified by customs in Cleveland.

Platinum black is defined as:

* * * soft dull black powder of finely divided metallic platinum obtained by reduction and precipitation from solution of its salts that is capable of occluding large volumes of hydrogen, oxygen, or other gases and that is used as a catalyst for hydrogenation or oxidation [Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1968.]

The duty status of imported platinum metal is provided for in TSUS schedule 6, part 2, subpart A. Part 2 contains legal headnotes relevant to the classification of so-called basic shapes and forms of metal provided for in part 2. Subpart A contains legal headnotes relevant to the classification of basic shapes and forms of precious metals, including platinum, provided for in that subpart. The relevant part and sub-part headnotes, and provisions for platinum are as follows:

Schedule 6. — Metals AND Metal Products
Part 2. - Metals, Their Allots, and Their Basic Shares AND Forms
Part 2 headnotes:
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3. For the purposes of this part, unless the context requires otherwise—
(a) the term “unwrought” refers to metal, whether or not refined, in the form of ingots, blocks, lumps, billets, cakes, slabs, pigs, cathodes, anodes, briquettes, cubes, sticks, grains, sponge, pellets, shot, and similar yrimary forms [emphasis added], but [540]*540does not cover rolled, forged, drawn, or extruded products, tubular products, or cast or sintered forms which, have been machined or processed otherwise than by simple trimming, scalping, or descaling;
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(c) the term “wrought”, as applied to metal products other than wrought iron, refers to products which have been rolled, forged, drawn, or extruded, and also refers to cast or sintered products which have been machined or processed otherwise than by simple trimming, scalping, or descaling;
$$$$$$$
Subpart A.-Precious Metals
Subpart A headnotes:
* * * * * * *
2. For the purpose of the tariff schedules—
(a) the term “platinum” refers to platinum and other metals of the platinum group (iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, and ruenthium), separately or together, and the term “the metal platinum” refers to the metal platinum alone ;
(b) the term “semimanufactured” refers to wrought metal products in the form of bars, rods, sections, plates, sheets, strips, wire, tubes, pipes, and hollow bars, and to powder (other than 'primary metal in powder form [emphasis added] ) ;
Platinum (including gold- or silver-plated platinum but not rolled platinum), un-wrought or semimanufactured:
Unwrought:
605.02 Metals of the platinum group separately; native combinations of such metals; and artificial combinations of such metals containing by weight not less than 90 percent of the metal platinum_ Free
Semimanufactured:
‡ ‡ $ $ $ $ ‡
605.08 Other, including alloys of platinum- 40% ad val.

At the outset, defendant submits that platinum black “could never fall within the purview of item 605.02, despite the obvious intent of the draftsmen to exclude some powders from item 605.08.” Defendant concludes that even “those powders, so excluded, will have to fall else[541]*541where in the tariff schedules than in item 605.02, for a statute must ultimately be judged by what it clearly says rather than by what its draftsmen subjectively intended.” If we read the point correctly, defendant would simply exclude “primary metal in powder form” (already excluded from “semimanufactured” by the definition) from the term “unwrought” because the definition of “unwrought” does not identify powder by name. Defendant’s proposal, in our opinion, is more an emasculation than a construction of the part of the “un-wrought” definition which refers to “primary forms” of metal “similar” to those named. Reading the statutory headnote definitions of “un-wrought” and “semimanufactured” together, it is quite clear to us that the reference in the term “unwrought”, to primary forms of metal similar to those designated by name, includes “primary metal in powder form” specifically excluded from the term “semimanufactured”. Indeed, the legislative history of the exclusion indicates that industry was prompted to suggest the adopted exclusion out of concern that the term “semimanufactured”, with its reference to powder, would be construed to include all metal powder, and that the exclusion was necessary to preserve the free duty status of primary metal in powder form as distinguished from metal powder produced by grinding or other manufacturing processes.1

The fact that the imported platinum black is in powder form quite obviously does not prove or tell us whether it is an “unwought” powder or a “semimanufactured” powder.

The record consists of testimony from three witnesses for plaintiff.

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Related

Erie Technological Products, Inc. v. United States
462 F.2d 564 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 Cust. Ct. 538, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/erie-technological-products-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1970.