Gloy's Import Co. v. United States

57 Cust. Ct. 343, 1966 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1731
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1966
DocketC.D. 2812
StatusPublished

This text of 57 Cust. Ct. 343 (Gloy's Import 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
Gloy's Import Co. v. United States, 57 Cust. Ct. 343, 1966 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1731 (cusc 1966).

Opinion

OliveR, Judge:

The merchandise involved in this protest is described on the invoice as “ ‘Vulcano’ cooking stoves for spirit, No. 104.” The stoves were assessed with duty at the rate of 19 per centum ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 397 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Sixth Protocol of Supplementary Concessions to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 91 Treas. Dec. 150, T.D. 54108, as articles in chief value of steel, not specially provided for. Plaintiff claims the stoves are properly dutiable at only 12% per centum ad valorem under the same paragraph of said act, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 86 Treas. Dec. 121, T.D. 52739, as cooking stoves of the household type.

The relevant modifications of paragraph 397 are set forth as follows:

[T.D. 54108] Articles or wares, not specially provided
for, whether partly or wholly manufactured:
****** *
Composed wholly or in chief value of iron, steel, * * * but not plated with platinum, gold, or silver, or colored with gold lacquer:
* ‡ ‡ $
Other_ 19% ad val.
[344]*344[T.D. 52739] All the following, if not wholly or in chief value of lead, tin, or tin plate:
* * * * * * *
Cooking and heating stoves of the household type (not including portable stoves designed to be operated by compressed air and kerosene or gasoline), and parts thereof-12yz% ad val.

The parties have stipulated with respect to the following: That the imported stoves are in chief value of steel and not plated with platinum, gold, or silver, or colored with gold lacquer; that plaintiff’s exhibit 1, a picture of the vulcamarine model No. 104, is illustrative of the merchandise under protest; and that said model stove is 19 by 103/2 by 5 inches, weighs 7 pounds, is cream colored and enameled, possesses two burners, and has a fuel capacity of 1 quart.

The remaining evidence in the case consists of the testimony of plaintiff’s sole witness, Mr. Herbert Littman, the self-employed owner of Herbert Littman, Inc., a manufacturer’s representative firm primarily dealing in outdoor items. He testified that he was personally familiar with the imported stoves having sold them for approximately 51/2 years throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The chief sources of sales are to boat dealers, camping-dealers, trailer dealers, and hardware distributors. According to Mr. Littman, this merchandise operates solely with the use of denatured, nontoxic alcohol. With reference to plaintiff’s exhibit 1, he testified as follows: Each stove is filled by removing a brass cover (marked “A” on exhibit 1) located to the rear; when filled, a knob (marked “B” on exhibit 1) in the front of the stove is turned slightly to allow the alcohol to run into the priming plate (marked “C” on exhibit 1) which, in turn, is connected to the burner; the knob is then turned to the “off” position and the alcohol on the priming plate is lit, heating the burner tube; the intensity of the flame produced is regulated by use of the knob “B.” It was further developed that the stoves are portable although they contain provisions for being bolted down in place as when used on board a boat. They also contain sliding bar separators that are for locking pots in place when used for on-board cooking purposes.

While there was testimony concerning various uses for the stoves, such as in tent camps, in house trailers, summer homes, and fallout shelters, it was acknowledged that they are primarily designed for and chiefly used on boats.

Plaintiff has advanced two alternative contentions to sustain its claim. First, it argues that the provision for cooking stoves of the household type in the modified version of paragraph 397 covers all stoves that have the characteristics and design of stoves employed in a [345]*345household regardless of whether or not they are chiefly so used in a home. Secondly, and alternatively, plaintiff maintains that, if the place of actual chief use is a determining factor in classifying the imported merchandise, then it has made out a prima facie case that the stoves are chiefly used in the household since the boats in which they are used are structures for human habitation.

In support of its primary contention, plaintiff refers the court to excerpts from the “Digest of Trade Data with Respect to Products on which Concessions were Granted by the United States” in the Swedish Trade Agreement, 68 Treas. Dec. 19, T.D. 47785.1 It was this trade agreement that first carved out the provision for cooking and heating stoves of the household type as well as the provision for portable cooking and heating stoves designed to be operated by compressed air and kerosene or gasoline. Based upon this source of legislative history,2 plus reference to a footnote concerning “Gasoline camp stoves” set out in a table of dollar volume of imports of cooking and heating stoves in the aforementioned Digest of Trade Data, plaintiff asserts it is apparent that the treaty modification intended to cover all household-type cooking and heating stoves used for heating and cooking in camps, on boats, and generally for purposes where heavier stoves are not convenient or where gas or electricity is not available and that the only requirement is that “the cooking stove be of the type suitable for family cooking rather than some large-scale cooking-purpose.”

The difficulty with this is that the conclusions drawn by the plaintiff are not so apparent. The notation in the Digest of Trade Data, supra, to cooking stoves used in camps, on boats, and for purposes where heavier stoves are not convenient or where gas or electricity is not available refers only, as the Summaries of Tariff Information for 1948 (volume 3, part 5, page 220) point out, to portable gasoline or kerosene stoves operated by compressed air which were explicitly provided for in a separate provision from cooking stoves of the household type in the Swedish Trade Agreement, T.D. 47785. Also, the adjective “household” is used in the Digest of Trade Data, supra, to [346]*346modify the term “cooking and heating stoves” and, thereby, tends to be in harmony with this court’s observation in Lipman's v. United States, 52 Cust. Ct. 98, 103, C.D. 2444 (affirmed United States v. Lipman's, 52 CCPA 59, C.A.D. 859), that the word “household” has the same connotation when used to describe a stove in paragraph 397 or a utensil in paragraph 339. Thus, where the tariff provision has called for household utensils, as in the Lipman’s case, supra, or for glass household articles, as was before this court in M. Pressner & Co. v. United States, 49 Cust. Ct. 221, Abstract 67019, the place of chief use, that is, in or immediately adjacent to the home or family dwelling, has been a determining factor in classifying the merchandise at issue.

In any event, this court, on several occasions, has consistently indicated that the situs of use, as well as the kind of use, significantly bears upon the question of classification under the modified provision for cooking and heating stoves of the household type: K. Samura Shoten v. United States, 2 Cust. Ct. 45, C.D. 84;

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Shoten v. United States
2 Cust. Ct. 45 (U.S. Customs Court, 1939)
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Lipman's v. United States
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Bluebook (online)
57 Cust. Ct. 343, 1966 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gloys-import-co-v-united-states-cusc-1966.