Genebal Aniline Works, Inc. v. United States

8 Cust. Ct. 180
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMarch 11, 1942
DocketC. D. 600
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 Cust. Ct. 180 (Genebal Aniline Works, 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
Genebal Aniline Works, Inc. v. United States, 8 Cust. Ct. 180 (cusc 1942).

Opinion

Tilson, Judge:

This suit against the United States was brought at the port of New York to recover certain customs duties claimed to have been illegally exacted upon a certain importation designated on the invoice as “Amido Azo Benzol Disulfonic acid.” The collector ■classified the merchandise as a color acid under paragraph 28 of the ■act of 1930, and assessed the same with duty at 7 cents per pound •and 45 per centum ad valorem.

The plaintiff makes various claims for lower rates of duty, among which is the claim at 7 cents per pound and 40 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 27 of the same act, and specifically under sub-paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 thereof.

Prior to the trial it was stipulated in open court by counsel for the .respective parties that:

The imported commodity is none of the commodities mentioned by name in paragraph 28, except possibly a color acid; and that it is a product which is obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from the product mentioned in paragraph 1651, benzene, and that it is similar in use to the products mentioned by name in paragraph 27; and the importer’s attorney agrees to abandon the claims under paragraphs 1 and 5, thereby limiting the issue as to whether or not this product belongs under paragraph 28, as a color acid, or is under paragraph 27.

The pertinent parts of the competing paragraphs read as follows:

Par. 28. Coal-tar products:
(a) * * * color acids, * * * all the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, when obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from any of the products provided for in paragraph 27 or 1651; * * * 45 per centum ad valorem and 7 cents per pound.
Par. 27. Coal-tar products:
(3) all products, by whatever name known, which are similar to any of the products provided for in this paragraph or in paragraph 1651, and which are obtained, derived, or manufactured in, whole or in part from any of the products provided for in this paragraph or in paragraph 1651;
(4) all mixtures, including solutions, consisting in whole or in part of any of the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, except sheep dip and medicinal soaps;
(5) all the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, not colors, dyes, or stains, color acids, color bases, color lakes, leueo-compounds, indoxyl, indoxyl compounds, ink powders, photographic chemicals, medicináis, synthetic aromatic or odoriferous chemicals, synthetic resinlike products, synthetic tanning materials, or explosives, and not specially provided for in paragraph 28 or 1651, 40 per centum ad valorem and 7 cents per pound.

Counsel for the plaintiff then offered in evidence a' representative sample of the merchandise, and the same was received without objection and marked exhibit 1.

William Carroll Wilhelm, called as a witness for the plaintiff, testified that he was employed by the plaintiff herein, manufacturers of intermediates and dyestuffs, as analytical chemist, which posi[182]*182tion he had held for about 11 years and that his duties consisted of supervising the analytical work pertaining to raw materials and intermediates, and the finished products produced by the plant; that he had studied chemistry in the years 1914 to 1918 at the Pennsylvania State College and had received the degree of Bachelor of Science in chemistry from that institution; that since his graduation he had been continuously engaged in analytical work of the same character as at present; that he had first worked with the Grasselli Dyestuff Corporation and then with the General Aniline Works, Inc.; that he had received a portion of exhibit 1 and had carefully dried it and found that it contained 43 per centum water and 57 per centum dry material.

The witness then produced a sample of exhibit 1 that had been so dried and the same was received in evidence as exhibit 2. He further testified that upon exhibit 2 he made tests for the water soluble content, the inorganic salts, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphur and found the water insoluble to be 2% per centum, leaving 97% per centum soluble; that he found the sodium sulphate to be 12 per centum; the sodium chloride to be %0 per centum, and a trace of lead amounting to 10 parts in a million.

He then took a known weight of exhibit 2, dissolved it in distilled water and filtered off the insoluble material; then the filtrate from this water insoluble material he acidified with hydrochloric acid, and cooled it with ice to a temperature of about 10° or 15° C., and treated this with a standard solution of sodium nitrate. He observed that a definite amount of this sodium nitrite solution was consumed, which is a positive test in organic analyses of the presence of an amino group, NH2 group; from the amount of the sodium nitrite solution consumed, and assuming that this exhibit 2 might possibly be the disodium salt of sulfonic acid, having previously determined the presence of sodium sulphate, of molecular weight of 401, he calculated the purity of exhibit 2 to be 90.2 per centum; that this has led him to believe that exhibit 2 was a sodium salt rather than a free acid; that from the total of the impurities and the 90.2 per centum purity he had found, he had obtained a total of well over 100 per centum, which led him to believe that exhibit 2 was a monosodium salt with a molecular weight of 379 rather than disodium salt; that his further analyses confirmed him in that belief, and that from the amount of combined sulphur found, which amounted to 14.3 per centum, from the amount of impurities which summed up to about 14% per centum and from the purity of 85.2 per centum found, which gave a summation of about 99% per centum, he had concluded that this product must be a monosodium salt of amido azo benzol disulfonic acid.

This formula the witness then produced and the same was admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit A. The witness then testified that [183]*183the imported product was a monosodium salt of amido azo benzol disulfonic acid, about 85 per centum pure.

The witness testified on cross-examination that the only difference between exhibit 1 and exhibit 2 was that exhibit 2 was exhibit 1 dried; that he had experimented with compounds substantially similar to the sample he had analyzed in this case; that he had never made a dye from such a product; that a disulfonic acid has two sul-fonic groups; that a monosodium salt of disulfonic acid has one of the hydrogen ions in one of the sulfonic groups which is replaced by sodium; that, referring to illustrative exhibit A, there are present two sulfonic groups, which is S03H and on the one H has been replaced by sodium; that gave a monosodium salt of the disulfonic acid where there had been two S03 groups present, and that he had found exhibit 2 to be the monosodium salt; that the one group is a salt and the other an acid; that exhibit 2 was both an acid and a salt.

The witness also testified that the imported commodity was an acid salt which was 50 per centum acid and 50 per centum salt; that it had the properties of both an acid and a salt; that a salt did not give an acid reaction; and that the imported commodity was a salt and not an acid.

Harry Wilhelm Grimmel, testifying for the plaintiff, stated that he had studied chemistry at the University of Goettingen for 4 years, 1918 to 1922, and had received the degree of Ph.

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Related

Protest 44346-K of General Aniline Works, Inc.
10 Cust. Ct. 435 (U.S. Customs Court, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Cust. Ct. 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/genebal-aniline-works-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1942.