Griffon Importing Co. v. United States

20 Cust. Ct. 179, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 30
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 14, 1948
DocketC. D. 1106
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 20 Cust. Ct. 179 (Griffon Importing 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
Griffon Importing Co. v. United States, 20 Cust. Ct. 179, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 30 (cusc 1948).

Opinions

Oliver, Presiding Judge:

The merchandise before us consisting of certain glass bottles exported from England was assessed for duty at 75 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 218 (e) of the Tariff Act of 1930. They are claimed to be dutiable at 25 per centum ad valorem under the same paragraph. Paragraph 218 (e) reads:

Bottles and jars, wholly or in chief value of glass, * * *; all the foregoing produced by automatic machine, 25 per centum ad valorem; otherwise produced, 75 per centum ad valorem.

The only issue presented is whether these bottles were “produced by automatic machine” or “otherwise produced.” This same question was before us in Jos. Riedel Glass Works, Inc. v. United States, 12 Cust. Ct. 173, C. D. 849. The machine which produced the bottles in that case was fully automatic in its operation after the molten glass entered the mold. The supply of molten glass, however, was gathered and the'required amount for the bottle to be manufactured was cut off by a worker. This operator was not a glass blower and no human glass-blowing operation was involved. In that case, upon the record there made and-after an examination of the legislative history of paragraph 218 (e), we found that such a machine, automatic except for the matter of the method of feeding the raw material to it, was such an automatic machine as was contemplated by the Congress in enacting paragraph 218 (e) into law. Upon appeal, this decision was [180]*180affirmed by our appellate court in United States v. Jos. Riedel Glass Works, Inc., 32 C. C. P. A. 201, C. A. D. 307.

The record in the present case presents a state of facts somewhat different from those before us in the Riedel case, sufra. The present record consists of the testimony of one witness for the plaintiff, taken by deposition in England, and the oral testimony of two witnesses for the Government whose testimony was taken in open court in New York. The parties to this litigation are in substantial agreement as to the operation of the bottle-making machine that produced all the bottles before us. This operation is set forth in detail in the answer of plaintiff’s witness to interrogatories No. 4 and 5, and cross-interrogatory No. 26 in exhibit 1. These questions and answers have been placed in their proper chronological order for ease of reference and have been, as so combined, set forth in plaintiff’s exhibit 13. Plaintiff’s witness testified as follows (exhibit 13, pp. 1, 2):

(a) How does the glass get into the mould or machine?
(b) What takes place immediately following the introduction of the glass?
(c) How the quantity of glass is fixed or determined?
(d) How the quantity of air to blow each bottle or jar is'fixed or determined and what is its source of supply?
(e) What further operations are necessary to complete the production of the bottles or jars?
a. Molten glass is transferred, by a gatherer using a solid gathering iron, from the furnace to the parison mould to which are fitted the neckring moulds.
b. No. 1 Operator cuts off sufficient glass which, by means of vacuum created by continuously working pumps to which the machine is connected, is automatically sucked into the neck moulds. This operation forms the aperture, the brim and the external shape of the neck of the bottle.
c. The quantity of glass is largely determined by the size or capacity of the parison mould and also partly by the point at which the operator cuts the glass from the gathering iron.
d. Compressed air, supplied from power driven compressors, is released through a eontrol valve to blow the internal shape of the neck and the parison form. The parison form is determined by the shape of the parison mould.
e. The nockring moulds in their spring loaded holders, supporting the partly formed bottle, are transferred (by No. 1 Operator) to the blow or finishing mould. No. 2 Operator lowers the blow head thereby releasing the valve which controls the compressed air supply. The bottle is then automatically blown to the shape of the finishing mould. The finished bottle is removed from the mould by No. 2 Operator who compresses the spring of the neck mould holders, automatically ejecting the bottle on to the table of the machine. From this point the bottle is carried to the annealing lehr.
6. Was human lung'power used at any time in the production of the item numbers in question 3? — No.

It appears from the above testimony of the plaintiff’s witness in the present record that the imported bottles were produced by machine; that in addition to the gatherer (the only operator in the Riedel case, supra), the services of two other operators wore required, three in all; that the air required to blow the molten glass to the form of the bot-[181]*181ties in the molds was compressed air supplied by the machine; and that no human glass-blowing operation was involved at any point.

The question thus presented for our consideration is whether such a machine, so operated, is to be considered for tariff purposes, in the bottle industry, as an automatic machine. In the Riedel case, supra, we held that a machine completely automatic as far as forming the bottle was concerned, but in which the raw material, molten glass, was fed to the machine by an operator, was an automatic machine within the meaning and intent of Congress. In our decision in the Riedel case, supra, after carefully examining the legislative history of paragraph 218 (e), which appeared for the first time in the Tariff Act of 1930, we said: “It is thus made clear that the Congress did not intend the lower rate to apply to hand-blown bottles, but only to bottles made by automatic machines” and later “It thus appears that the term ‘automatic machine’ has been somewhat loosely used and in some instances, at least, as synonymous with ‘machine-made,’ as opposed to hand-blown bottles.” Our court of appeals in its opinion affirming this court, supra, cited with approval the following definition in Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, 1936:

automatic machine. A machine or machine tool which, after once being set, operates automatically, except for applying the power, lubrication, supplying material, and shutting off the power. ¡Italics quoted.]

The court said further:

As argued by appellee, it is clear from the record that the machine which produced the bottles in this case operated automatically, after once being set, except for supplying the raw material — molten glass. Such a machine falls squarely within the dictionary definition of “automatic machine” given above, despite the fact that the raw material is fed by hand. Once the raw material is placed into the machine, all other operations are automatic, and the next thing that emerges is a completed bottle. [Italics supplied.]

In the case now before us the machine does not “after once being set” operate “automatically except for * * * supplying material.” In fact, were it not for the intervention of operators No. 2 and 3 in the process, no completed bottle would ever emerge from the machine.

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Bluebook (online)
20 Cust. Ct. 179, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffon-importing-co-v-united-states-cusc-1948.