Gonzalez v. United States

4 Cust. Ct. 147, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 36
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedApril 1, 1940
DocketC. D. 309
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 4 Cust. Ct. 147 (Gonzalez 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
Gonzalez v. United States, 4 Cust. Ct. 147, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 36 (cusc 1940).

Opinion

Cline, Judge:

This is a suit against the United States in which the plaintiff seeks to recover a part of the duty assessed on certain com products imported from Mexico through the port of El Paso, Tex. Duty was assessed by the collector at the rate of 50 cents per hundred pounds under the provision for “corn grits, meal, and flour, and similar products” in the second part of paragraph 724 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The plaintiff claims that the merchandise should be assessed at 20 per centum ad valorem as a nonenumerated manufactured article under paragraph 1558 which, is the provision under which it was entered. A further claim is made, in the alternative, that the merchandise is dutiable at 25 cents per bushel under the first clause in paragraph 724 as “cracked corn” either directly or by similitude. The pertinent parts of the provisions in question read as follows:

Par. 724. Corn or maize, including cracked corn, 25 cents per bushel of fifty-six pounds; corn grits, meal, and flour, and similar products, 50 cents per one hundred pounds.
Par. 1558. That there shall be levied, collected, and paid on the importation of all raw or unmanufactured articles not enumerated or provided for, a duty of. 10 per centum ad valorem, and on all articles manufactured, in whole or in part, not specially provided for, a duty of 20 per centum ad valorem.
Par. 1559. That each and every imported article, not enumerated in this Act, which is similar, either in material, quality, texture, or the use to which it may be applied to any article enumerated in this Act as chargeable with duty, shall be subject to the same rate of duty which is levied on the enumerated article which it most resembles in any of the particulars before mentioned; * * *.

The plaintiff, Mr. A. C. Gonzalez, testified that he purchased corn at different points in Chihuahua, Mexico, and shipped it in bulk to [149]*149Juarez, where he had the com sacked and taken to a mill at which place it was prepared in its condition as imported. The witness testified that he is a broker and has been in the milling business and is familiar with the milling and preparation of corn and similar products. In describing the process which the instant merchandise had undergone he stated that the corn was shelled in a crude way; that “shaft and half pieces of cobs and everything else” remained in the resultant product; that it is fed through a funnel into a small machine that “has 2 rocks; one is fixed and the other revolves, and it just cracks the corn, breaks the corn; no other process whatever.”

A sample of the imported product was admitted in evidence and marked Exhibit 1. When asked how he would classify it, he said it was broken corn. Subsequently he said it was cracked or crushed corn. He further testified that the corn had undergone no other process than that described and that it was not intended for human consumption but was cattle feed. On cross-examination the witness said that he would not call the process which he had described a milling process, but later he testified as follows:

X Q. That is just a degree of milling though, is it not? — A. I suppose you would call it that, but we don’t call it. We call it cracked corn, martajada.
X Q. But in order to accomplish this you did have to put it through a milling machine? — A. Through a machine, yes.

The second witness on behalf of the plaintiff, Mr. Louis Alberto Vergara, testified that he has a mill and that he prepared the instant commodity. His description of the process used was in substance the same as that given by the first witness. He also stated that he was familiar with the manner and method of making com flour and other products derived from the milling of corn, and designated the imported commodity as broken corn. This witness further testified that he has a special mill for broken com and another for com meal. On cross-examination he stated that the corn he ground for the importer herein was shelled com and that the mill, consisting of the two stones, can be adjusted so as to make the resulting product coarse or fine.

The Government offered the testimony of two witnesses, the first of whom, Mr. J. G. Stephens, described himself as an operative miller engaged in milling grain — wheat flour and corn — having been superintendent in charge of operations with a large milling organization since 1917. He testified that there are various degrees of cracked corn called “coarse, medium, and fine” and that “cracked com is com that has passed through rolls, been crushed or broken.” When shown Exhibit 1 he stated that “it is coarse com meal feed.” He defined com meal feed as “com that has been ground to a specified fineness.” On cross-examination, when asked to state the difference between [150]*150corn meal feed and cracked corn, he said: “Well, cracked corn has had the fine meal taken out of it.”

The second witness appearing on behalf of the defendant, Mr. C. O. Jones, also described himself as an operative miller, with an experience of 5 years with a large milling company that supplies the southwestern portion of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Based upon his long experience in the milling business he defined cracked corn as the broken grains of corn. When shown Exhibit 1, the sample of the merchandise in suit, he described it as finer than cracked corn. He stated it was corn feed meal or corn feeding meal and that it was not cracked corn. When asked the difference between cracked corn and corn meal feed, he said “cracked corn has been higher refined than has corn feed meal.”

Counsel for the plaintiff contends in his brief that the merchandise is not within the provisions for “corn grits, meal, and flour, and similar products” under paragraph 724, wherein it was classified by the collector, for the reason that it is not fit for human consumption, citing Central Vermont Railway Co. et al. v. United States, T. D. 40375, 46 Treas. Dec. 152. In that case the court had certain hominy feed under consideration which merchandise had been classified under the identical provision in paragraph 724 of the Tariff Act of 1922. That merchandise was a byproduct from milling grain and the court held that it was classifiable as byproduct feeds obtained in milling cereals and dutiable at 15 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 730. The court said:

* * * In our view paragraph 724 was intended to provide for corn products suitable for human food, and all other derivatives from corn or maize are provided for in paragraph 730. * * *

The above language was quoted and the decision followed in the case of Pena & Flores Importing Co. v. United States, T. D. 49052, 72 Treas. Dec. 18.

The decision in Central Vermont Railway Co. et al. v. United States, supra, was called to the attention of Congress in the Summary of Tariff Information of 1929, page 1187, under the heading “Corn grits, meal, and flour, and similar products,” and, as the provision was reenacted in the Tariff Act of 1930 without change, it must be presumed that Congress intended that the language should have the same meaning as given it by the court. This rule of construction is stated in United States v. Kawahara, 15 Ct. Cust. Appls. 231, 234, T. D. 42242, as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 Cust. Ct. 147, 1940 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 36, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gonzalez-v-united-states-cusc-1940.