Field v. United States

34 C.C.P.A. 141, 1947 CCPA LEXIS 437
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 7, 1947
DocketNo. 4550
StatusPublished

This text of 34 C.C.P.A. 141 (Field 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
Field v. United States, 34 C.C.P.A. 141, 1947 CCPA LEXIS 437 (ccpa 1947).

Opinion

Jackson, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Customs Court, Third Division, C. D. 983, overruling the protest of appellant and sustaining the action of the collector of customs at the port of Wilmington, N. C., assessing duty on certain yarn under paragraph 1107 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as modified by the trade agreement with the United Kingdom, T. D. 49753, at the rate of 30 cents per pound plus 30 per centum ad valorem.

The case was submitted to the trial court on written stipulation of facts.

It appears that the Abbot Worsted Co. of Graniteville and Forge Yalley, Mass., manufactures, among other things, yarn from wools imported conditionally free of duty under paragraph 1101 (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended by section 33, Customs Administrative Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 1090, 19 U. S. C. A. § 1001, and the Customs Regulations of 1937 as amended by T. D. 49658.

On or about February 4, 1941, appellant purchased from the Abbot Co. 25,000 pounds of wool (carpet yarn, natural white) at 75 cents per pound F. O. B. Leakesville, N. C. Pursuant to said sale the Abbot Co. on March 10, 1941, shipped to appellant 7,028 pounds of yarn, freight prepaid, and packed in 29 bales, by railroad to Boston, Mass., where it was transferred to a vessel of the Merchants & Miners Transportation Co, for transportation to Norfolk, Va., and thence by rail to Leakesville.

The ship carrying the yarn went aground on Penikese Island in Buzzards Bay off the coast of Massachusetts on March 12, 1941, and in an attempt to float the vessel, 21 bales were jettisoned. The jettisoned merchandise was recovered after having been submerged in sea water for 2 weeks by the shipping company’s insurance underwriters and after having been laundered was sold at public auction at Norfolk on May 1, 1941. Notice of the intention to sell had been theretofore advertised in newspapers published in New York, Norfolk, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

[143]*143The eight undamaged bales were delivered to appellant on April 17, 1941.

Four days after delivery of the undamaged bales, appellant was notified by letter from the underwriters that the ship had stranded and if appellant did not receive its shipment within a reasonable time a claim therefor would be in order. For the reason that appellant purchased the yarn at a delivered price in Leakesville it filed no claim, but notified the Abbot Co. which on making its claim was paid the full value of the jettisoned yarn.

On May 1, 1941, the recovered bales were purchased at auction as aforesaid by the Pilgrim Mill Supply Co., New Bedford, Mass., and thereafter that company offered to sell them to appellant. After consideration appellant found the merchandise unsuitable for use in the manufacture of carpets, rugs, or other floor coverings and declined to purchase it. The yarn was ultimately made into sweaters, fringes for baby carriage covers, and for use in hand netting or hand framed weaving.

Paragraph 1101 (b), as amended, reads as follows:

Par. 1301. (b) Any of the foregoing [wool and hair of the camel] may be entered or withdrawn from warehouse without the payment of duty by a manufacturer, processor, or dealer upon the filing of a bond to insure that any wool or hair entered or withdrawn thereunder shall be xised only in the manufacture of press cloth, camel’s hair belting, knit or felt boots, heavy fulled lumbermen’s socks, rugs, carpets, or any other floor coverings. A manufacturer, processor, or dealer may be relieved of liability under his bond with respect to any wool or hair so entered or withdrawn which is transferred in its imported or any other form to another manufacturer, processor, or dealer who has filed a bond to insure that the merchandise so transferred shall be used only in the manufacture of the above-enumerated articles. If any wool or hair so entered, withdrawn, or transferred under bond is used or transferred for use in its imported or any other form in any manner otherwise than in the manufacture of the articles enumerated above, there shall be levied, collected, and paid on the merchandise so used or transferred in violation of the bond the regular duties which would apply to such merchandise if imported in its condition at the time of such use or transfer. Such duties shall be paid by the manufacturer, processor, or dealer whose bond is charged with the wool or hair at the time of such use or transfer; but such duties shall not be levied or collected on any merchandise (except white soft wastes, white threads and noils, which shall be dutiable at seven-eighths of such regular duties when used or transferred for use otherwise than in the manufacture of the enumerated articles) resulting in the usual course of manufacture of such enumerated manufactured articles which cannot be used (with or without further preparation) in the usual course of the manufacture of such enumerated articles or which is exported or destroyed. When any wool or hair which has been entered or withdrawn under bond as provided for in this subparagraph is used or transferred for use, in its imported or any other form, otherwise than in the manufacture of the above-enumerated articles and prior to such use or transfer there shall have been combined or mixed with such wool or hair any other merchandise, the whole or the combination or mixture shall be presumed to be composed of wool or hair entered or withdrawn under bond, as provided for in this subpara-[144]*144graph, unless the manufacturer, processor, or dealer liable for the payment of the duties shall establish the quantity of bonded wool or hair in such combination or mixture. Every manufacturer, processor, or dealer who has given a bond pursuant to the provisions of this subparagraph shall report any use or transfer of merchandise in violation of the terms of his bond, within thirty days after such use or transfer, to the collector of customs in whose district the bond-is filed; and for failure to so report, such manufacturer, processor, or dealer shall be liable to a penalty equal to the value of the merchandise so used or transferred at the time and place of such use or transfer. Such penalty shall be in addition to the duties above provided for. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe such regulations and the form, conditions, and amounts of such bonds as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this subparagraph.

Pursuant to the provisions of that paragraph the Abbot Co. had filed a bond on customs Form 7549, dated May 24, 1940, in the sum of $100,000 with the Collector of Customs at the port of Boston and appellant filed its bond dated May 20, 1940, in the sum of $20,000 on the same numbered form with the Collector of Customs at the port of Wilmington, N. C. Both companies stated in their bonds that they expected to enter or withdraw conditionally free of duty certain wool or hair in its imported or other form or to receive the same by transfer under bond provided for in paragraph 1101, as amended, during the period from June 1, 1940, to and including the last day of May 1941.

On March 10, 1941, the Abbot Co. signed a certificate which evidenced the transfer of the 29 bales of yarn from it to appellant. On receipt of that written transfer appellant on March 14, 1941, certified on it that the transfer had been made. The Abbot Co. filed the document so signed and certified in the office of the Collector of Customs at Boston on April 2, 1941, from where it was forwarded to the collector at Wilmington and filed on May 13, 1941.

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Bluebook (online)
34 C.C.P.A. 141, 1947 CCPA LEXIS 437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/field-v-united-states-ccpa-1947.