Geo. S. Bush & Co. v. United States

10 Cust. Ct. 313, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 752
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 26, 1943
DocketC. D. 773
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 10 Cust. Ct. 313 (Geo. S. Bush & 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
Geo. S. Bush & Co. v. United States, 10 Cust. Ct. 313, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 752 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Cole, Judge:

The merchandise in this case consists of oil extracted from dogfish livers. It was assessed with duty at 10 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 34 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1001, par. 34), as an advanced drug, plus 1% cents per pound as fish oil, under section 601-C-8 of the Revenue Act of 1932 (26 U. S. C. 1934 ed. § 999a), as amended by section 701 of the Revenue Act of 1936 (26 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 2491) and modified by the Canadian Trade Agreement, published in T. D. 49752. Plaintiff claims that the merchandise is entitled to free entry under paragraph 1669 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1201, par. 1669), as a crude drug, and further, that the merchandise is not subject to the revenue tax on the ground “that the provision for fish oil in the revenue act should not be extended to cover a commodity which is a drug.”

The latter claim, however, was .neither stressed at. the trial nor argued in the briefs. Further indication that plaintiff places little, if any, faith in said claim is found in counsel’s admission in his opening statement that the principle there involved “is somewhat the same as what was before the court in a case on sunflower-seed oil, which was decided adversely to the importer.” The case referred to is United States v. Wecoline Products Corp., 29 C. C. P. A. 161, C. A. D. 186, wherein the court held that assessements under the revenue act of 1936 were customs duties, and that the said statute was amendatory [315]*315to tbe Tariff Act of 1930 and did not affect any of tbe provisions of tbe earlier law. Accordingly, tbe assessment under tbe revenue act was considered by tbe appellate court in determining tbe dutiable status of tbe sunflower oil there involved and found it to be subject to tbe tax imposed thereunder, although it was entitled to free entry under tbe Tariff Act of 1930. Directly in point is Atlantic Coast Fisheries Corp. v. United States, 6 Cust. Ct. 415, C. D. 506, wherein fish-liver oil was held to be subject to tbe revenue tax, notwithstanding its tariff classification as an advanced drug. Tbe cited cases are controlling for tbe conclusion that tbe dogfish-liver oil in question is properly subject to tbe revenue tax imposed herein, and tbe court so bolds.

Except for tbe kind of drugs contemplated thereunder, tbe paragraphs in issue (paragraphs 34 and 1669) are identical. Each contains tbe following language:

Drugs such as barks, beans, berries, buds, bulbs, bulbous roots, excrescences, fruits, flowers, dried fibers, dried insects, grains, herbs, leaves, lichens, mosses, roots, stems, vegetables, seeds (aromatic, not garden seeds), seeds of morbid growth, weeds, and all other drugs of vegetable or animal origin; any of the foregoing which are natural and uncompounded drugs and not edible, and not specially provided for, * * *; Provided, That the term “drug” wherever used in this Act shall include only those substances having therapeutic or medicinal properties and chiefly used for medicinal purposes: And provided further, That no article containing alcohol shall be classified for duty under this paragraph.

However, paragraph 1669, under which claim is made, is limited to drugs "in a crude state, not advanced in value or condition,” while paragraph 34, under which assessment was made, covers drugs “advanced in value or condition by shredding, grinding, chipping, crushing, or any other process or treatment whatever beyond that essential to the proper packing of the drugs and the prevention of decay or deterioration pending manufacture.”

It is fundamental that a collector’s classification carries the presumption that all facts essential thereto have been established. United States v. Hillier’s Son Co., Inc., 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 103, T. D. 42762. It therefore follows, as contended by plaintiff, that the merchandise in question is a drug within the meaning thereof as set forth in paragraphs 34 and 1669, supra. Thus the issue presented is limited to the question whether the imported oil, concededly a drug, has been “advanced in value or condition,” or is in “a crude state.”

Dr. Charles Roy Elsey, an amply qualified biologist and biochemist, employed by the Canadian exporter of the merchandise in question, who supervised processing the dogfish livers to obtain the'imported commodity, described the method pursued. It supports this factual finding: that dogfish livers, in fresh condition, are received at the plant in 45-gallon drums;- that they are passed through a gear pump, which macerates them, discharging the material into a series of five settling or rendering tanks, where it is subjected to heat treatment, and [316]*316as the material enters the first tank, it is treated with live steam, resulting in partial separation of the oil; that then through a process of fractionation by gravity the overflow from each tank passes to the next, and from the last tank in the series the material is carried into a sludging machine which “effects a three-phase gravity separation, delivering the oil out of one spout, the solids out of another, and the water out of another spout”; that this operation, however, is merely a “settling system of gravitation,” the real separation being later accomplished by means of a high speed centrifugally operated purifier which finally delivers a product that is 99 per centum pure oil, the imported commodity, and, that the residue is recovered and subjected to the treatment originally followed to obtain the oil remaining therein.

The claim of plaintiff is based on the premise that the processing of the dogfish livers merely brought the oil by itself, and did not advance it beyond a crude state. In support of this contention, great reliance is placed upon the case of United States v. Sheldon, 2 Ct. Cust. Appls. 485, T. D. 32245, wherein gum resin, obtained from oleoresin, was held to be a crude drug. In that case, the court found that the oleoresin or “crude turpentine” is collected in receptacles as it exudes from the trees; that the substance is subjected to a distilling process which vaporizes the turpentine; and that the degree of heat applied to obtain the turpentine is not sufficiently high to distill the resin but merely melts it, allowing it to run off through screens, removing thereform in the straining process “the chips, barks, insects, and dirt which accumulate therein in the reclamation of the oleoresin from the trunk of the tree,” before it is finally collected into vats. In reaching its conclusion, the court said:

In this condition, as thus deposited in the kegs of commerce, so far as this record shows, it in no sense differs in the slightest particular from its condition as found in the trunk of the tree. Nor does it differ in the slightest degree from its condition during any step of its processing from the tree to the barrels of commerce save that it is separated by heating from the turpentine in one instance, and separated by screening from dirt and chips in the other instance.

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Related

Geo. S. Bush & Co. v. United States
15 Cust. Ct. 83 (U.S. Customs Court, 1945)
Judson Sheldon Corp. v. United States
13 Cust. Ct. 65 (U.S. Customs Court, 1944)
Synthetic Patents Co. v. United States
11 Cust. Ct. 98 (U.S. Customs Court, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
10 Cust. Ct. 313, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/geo-s-bush-co-v-united-states-cusc-1943.