Gimbel Bros. v. United States

39 C.C.P.A. 173, 1952 CCPA LEXIS 111
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 18, 1952
DocketNo. 4671
StatusPublished

This text of 39 C.C.P.A. 173 (Gimbel Bros. 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
Gimbel Bros. v. United States, 39 C.C.P.A. 173, 1952 CCPA LEXIS 111 (ccpa 1952).

Opinion

Garrett, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the United States Customs Court, Second Division, entered in conformity with its decision, C. D. 1293, 26 Cust. Ct. 31, overruling the protest of importer, whereby it sought recovery of an alleged excess of duty assessed upon certain rugs, or floor coverings, by the Collector of Customs at the port of New York City.

Paragraph 1021 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is involved. It reads:

Par. 1021. Common China, Japan, and India straw matting, and floor coverings made therefrom, 3 cents per square yard; carpets, carpeting, mats, matting, and rugs, wholly or in chief value of flax, hemp, or jute, or a mixture thereof, 35 per centum ad valorem; all other floor coverings not specially provided for, 40 per centum ad valorem.

In the “Memorandum of the Collector” accompanying the appeal to the Customs Court, it is said that the merchandise was “classified as all other floor coverings, N. S. P. F. at 40% under paragraph 1021 of the Tariff Act of 1930.”

The protest of importer, after referring to the assessment as being “on certain carpets, mats, rugs or other floor coverings,” alleged:

Said merchandise is not dutiable as assessed. It is composed wholly or in chief value of flax, hemp or jute or a mixture thereof and is accordingly dutiable at only 35% under Par. 1021.

During the preliminary statement of counsel for appellant at the trial before the Customs Court, he first referred to the merchandise simply as rugs, and then he was asked certain questions as to whether [175]*175the articles were conceded to be rugs. The inquiries finally led counsel to say:

Mr. Rode: We are claiming, if I may withdraw my previous statement, which I did not intend to limit to the question of rugs — we claim that these articles are properly dutiable under the provision for “carpets, carpeting, mats, matting, and rugs, wholly or in chief value of flax.” The only issue in the case is whether or not phormium tenax is flax within the meaning of the terms of the Tariff Act.

The sample of the merchandise in evidence as Exhibit 1 is a rug and before us the merchandise is referred to specifically as rugs, which, of course, are included in the broad designation of floor coverings. There is no reference to it as “carpets, carpeting, mats or mattings.” Accordingly, we follow the trial court in referring to the merchandise as rugs.

There is no dispute with respect to the component material of chief value in the merchandise. It consists of fibers obtained from the leaves of the phormium plant. A witness for appellant, who stated that he had been engaged in buying floor covering — “Most everything that is made, from Constantinople to Yonkers, New York” — for 36 years, testified that he personally purchased the involved merchandise in Belgium. It is deduced from his testimony that it was manufactured from an order which he gave; that in the order he “stipulated it would be jute 30 per cent, phormium tenax 60 per cent, and sisal 10 per cent”; and that the sample rug introduced in evidence as appellant’s Exhibit 1 approximated his specification.

So, in the brief for appellant it is said that the question presented is:

Whether a rug in chief value of Phormium Tenax is- a rug in chief value of flax within the meaning of that term [flax] as used in Paragraph 1021.

Paragraph 1021 of the Tariff Act of 1930, supra, so far as here pertinent, is the same as paragraph 1022 of the Tariff Act of 1922.

An edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, issued in 1922, states that the Anglicized word “Phormium” is derived from a Greek word meaning “a plaited mat, a kind of plant,” and defines “Phormium” botanicafly as “A genus of liliaceous plants comprising two species. P. tenax is the New Zealand flax.”

Definitions of flax are given in the 1922 Edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary and repeated in substance in all subsequent editions as follows:

1. A plant of the genus Linum esp. L. usitatissimum the species commonly cultivated for its fiber. It is a slender erect annual, with linear leaves and blue flowers. The long silky bast fiber, freed from the stem by rotting or “retting” and various mechanical processes is used in the manufacture of linen thread, which is woven into linen cloth, as cambric, lawn, etc. [A 1949 Edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary states that flax “is used in the manufacture of linen thread and twine, crash and floor covering, esp. in the warp of wool carpets and rugs. (Italics supplied.)]
2. The cleansed fiber of the flax plant prepared for spinning.
[176]*1763. Any one of several plants resembling flax; — usually with descriptive or qualifying adjective as toadjto, white flax, etc. (Italics quoted.)

Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language defines flax as

n. 1. The soft silky fiber obtained from the bark of the flax-plant. 2. An annual plant (Linum usitatissimum), of the family Linaceae, with stems about 2-feet high, having linear-lanceolate leaves, blue flowers, mucilaginous seed, called flaxseed or linseed, and a bast which yields the flax of commerce. 3. Any plant of the genus Linum. 4. Any one of several plants of other genera, mostly resembling flax, as the white flax or false flax, toadflax, and New Zealand flax or flax-bush. (Italics quoted.)

Of “flax-bush” that authority states:

The New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), a stemless, sword-leaved plant of the lily family, the leaves of which yield a strong fiber, useful for making ropes, mats, etc. (Italics quoted.)

It also defines “Phormium” botanically as follows:

A small genus of New.Zealand plants of the family Liliaceous having a short stem bearing a dense tuft of rigid, 2-ranked sword-shaped leaves. The best known is P. tenax, the New Zealand flax-lily. (Italics quoted.)

The following is taken from Volume IV, page 303, of Oxford's New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1901 Edition:

1. The plant Linum usitatissimum bearing blue flowers which are succeeded by pods containing the seeds commonly known as linseed. It is cultivated for its textile fibre and for its seeds. * * *
2. With qualifying word prefixed, in the names of other species of Linum or of plants resembling the true flax, as dwarf-, fairy-, mountain-, purging, spurge-, toad-, wild flax) * * *.
b. New Zealand Flax, Phormium tenax (also called flax-bush, -lily, -plant), a native of New Zealand, the leaves of which yield a textile fibre.
5. A material resembling the fibres of the flax-plant or used for a like purpose. (Italics quoted.)

The above quoted definitions are the same in substance as those given by other lexicographers which need not be quoted. It is noted that flax fibers of the L. usitatissimum species are.

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Related

Gimbel Bros., Inc. v. United States
26 Cust. Ct. 31 (U.S. Customs Court, 1951)
Bailey v. Cadwalader
43 F. 294 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1890)

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Bluebook (online)
39 C.C.P.A. 173, 1952 CCPA LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gimbel-bros-v-united-states-ccpa-1952.