General Chain & Belt Co. v. United States

40 Cust. Ct. 5
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedDecember 24, 1957
DocketC. D. 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 40 Cust. Ct. 5 (General Chain & Belt Co. 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
General Chain & Belt Co. v. United States, 40 Cust. Ct. 5 (cusc 1957).

Opinion

Lawrence, Judge;

Plaintiff imported certain so-called extractors which are used for the purpose of pushing the connecting pins out of lengths of chain, so that the chain may be taken apart by the removal of one or more finks.

The collector of customs classified the importation as articles in chief value of metal, not specially provided for, in paragraph 397 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 397), as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 82 Treas. Dec. 305, T. D. 51802, and duty was imposed thereon at the rate of 22% per centum ad valorem.

[6]*6Plaintiff relies upon the claim that the articles should be classified as machines in paragraph 372 of said act (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 372), as'modified by the Torquay protocol to said general agreement, 86 Treas. Dec. 121, T. D. 52739, and subjected to duty at the rate of 13% per centum ad valorem.

The pertinent text of the competing statutes is set forth below. Paragraph 397, as modified, supra — •

Articles or wares not specially provided for, whether partly or wholly manufactured:
* * * ‡ • * % :{:
Other (except slide fasteners and parts thereof)_-22% % ad val.
Paragraph 372, as modified, supra—
Machines, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for:
íjí N* ' ‡ ‡
Other (* * *)_J_13%% ad val.
The sole witness in the case, Joseph Joy, managing director of the plaintiff company, was called to testify on behalf of the importer.
The record discloses that the merchandise in controversy, as represented by collective exhibit 1, employs the principle of the lever, spring, and screw. To describe the principal parts of exhibit 1 and their functions, we quote from plaintiff’s brief as follows:
* * * The jaws of the extractor close automatically into a correct position over the pin in a link chain when the squeezing action of the hand on the lever handles is stopped, the automatic feature being performed by the action of stored-up energy in a spring. Then when the capstan on the top of the extractor is rotated by hand the rotational force is magnified about 900 times into a downward or vertical pressure on the pin by means of a screw leverage employing the mechanical principle of the wedge or inclined plane * * *, thus forcing out the pin * * *.

Thus it will be seen that manual force applied to the bar causes the capstan to turn the screw, magnifying the force of the screw about 900 times. Obviously, the energy or force which was applied to the capstan through manual pressure on the bar is transmitted through the screw, the initial energy applied being magnified 900 times.

Defendant relies upon the decision of our appellate court in United States v. Associated Mfg. Co., 30 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 236, C. A. D. 238, which involved the dutiable classification of tricycles. After referring to the definition of a machine, contained in the case of Simon, Buhler & Baumann (Inc.) v. United States, 8 Ct. Cust. Appls. 273, T. D. 37537, as "a mechanical contrivance for utilizing, applying, or modifying energy or force or for the transmission of motion,” which was recognized as correctly defining the term “machine,” the court stated that, in a very broad sense, “it never was-intended to mean that every mechanical contrivance which utilizes or applies or [7]*7modifies energy or force or for the transmission of motion must be considered in a tariff sense a machine.” Citing authorities.

The court then pointed out that, whereas the tricycles before it were mechanical contrivances, it could not be said that they utilized energy or force, but rather that they are merely moved, carrying their riders by means of the force exerted on the pedals which turn the front wheel one revolution to every revolution made by the pedals. The court there said: “Energy or force is applied to the tricycle, hut is not utilized by it.” [Emphasis supplied.]

Further, the court remarked:

* * * Neither does it modify force or energy for the reason that the foot power necessary to turn the front wheel is not changed or modified in any respect by the apparatus. A tricycle such as here involved is not a mechanical contrivance for the transmission of motion.

It was accordingly held that the tricycle there in controversy was not a machine in the sense of paragraph 372.

Plaintiff rests its case on the decisions of our appellate court in Simon, Buhler & Baumann (Inc.) v. United States, supra, and United States v. Guth Stern & Co., Inc., 21 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 246, T. D. 46777, and cites numerous other cases decided by this court and the appellate court which it deems decisive of the issue as to what constitutes a machine — our special attention being invited to the cases of Braun Corp. v. United States, 65 Treas. Dec. 387, T. D. 46938; Acrow, Incorporated, and Frank P. Dow Co., Inc. v. United States, 32 Cust. Ct. 356, Abstract 57727; and P. H. De Wilde and Harper, Robinson & Co. v. United States, 35 Cust. Ct. 295, Abstract 59420.

In the Braun case, supra, a sodium wire press, represented by a photograph of the article inserted in the opinion of the court, was described in the opinion as follows:

* * * It weighs about 65 to 70 pounds, and is composed entirely of iron or steel. As to its use and method of use the witness testified it is used for making sodium wire out of sodium balls as follows:
A ball of sodium is dropped into the die, and the pressure applied by screw forcing it out through the die into round wire or ribbon wire.
This is done by hand. The screw is used for applying the power “to press the material through the small orifice.” The function of the horizontal arm at the top with the balls on the end is “for the operator to turn the screw.” On turning the arms down the screw presses against the “mangle which goes into the die proper, pressing against the sodium.” He described the so-called “mangle” as “a machine in the frame of the machine acting as a plunger in a cylinder.” * * *

The court then referred to certain other articles operated by means of a spiral screw, which were held to be machines:

A meat-grinding machine, containing a spiral screw which when revolved by a handle or crank “forces the material along, and incidentally to some extent crushes it”. Martin B. Jager v. United States, Abstract 48421, 46 Treas. Dec. 767.
[8]*8A spectrographic comparator actuated by means of a hand crank and gears, which turned a longitudinal lead screw and moved a carriage back and forth. G. W. Sheldon & Co. v. United States, 59 Treas. Dec. 478 [T. D. 44665], * * *

The Acrow case, supra,

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Related

General Chain Sales Corp. v. United States
53 Cust. Ct. 232 (U.S. Customs Court, 1964)
Beck Distributing Corp. v. United States
44 Cust. Ct. 297 (U.S. Customs Court, 1959)
General Chain & Belt Co. v. United States
42 Cust. Ct. 404 (U.S. Customs Court, 1959)

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40 Cust. Ct. 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-chain-belt-co-v-united-states-cusc-1957.