Haruta & Co. v. United States

47 Cust. Ct. 21
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJuly 5, 1961
DocketC.D. 2273
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 47 Cust. Ct. 21 (Haruta & 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
Haruta & Co. v. United States, 47 Cust. Ct. 21 (cusc 1961).

Opinion

Johnson, Judge:

The protest in this case is directed against the collector’s assessment of duty on “fruit dishes and coup soups” at 10 cents per dozen pieces and 60 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 212 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Protocol of Terms of Accession by Japan to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, T.D. 53865, effective September 10, 1955, T.D. 53877, as plates over 6% but not over 7% inches in diameter and valued over $1.35 but not over $3.45 per dozen. It is claimed that the merchandise is properly dutiable under said paragraph at 10 cents per dozen pieces and 45 per centum ad valorem, as articles other than plates, cups, or saucers. Since the fruit dishes were not referred to at the trial or in plaintiff’s brief, the protest is deemed abandoned as to such articles.

Paragraph 212 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified, provides as follows:

China, porcelain, and other vitrified wares, * * * :
Tableware, kitchenware, and table and kitchen utensils, not containing 25 per centum or more of calcined bone:
* ******
[22]*22Other than, hotel or restaurant ware or utensils:
Plates, not over 6% inches in diameter and valued over 90 cents but not over $2.55 per dozen, or
over 6% but not over 7% inches in diameter and valued over $1.35 but not over $3.45 per dozen, * * *
articles which are not plates, cups, or saucers and which are valued over $4.50 but not over $11.50 per dozen articles;
all the foregoing-10$ per doz. separate pieces and 60% ad val.
Plates of the diameters specified heretofore in this item, cups, saucers, and articles other than plates, cups, and saucers; each of the foregoing which is valued at not more than the minimum value specified heretofore in this item in respect of the like article_10$ per doz. separate pieces and 45% ad val.

A sample of the imported merchandise was received in evidence at the trial and marked plaintiff's exhibit 1. It consists of a circular china ware article, 7% inches in diameter, about 114 inches deep, and having a base or flat portion 414 inches in diameter. It has no rim but curves upward and outward from the flat center portion. It sets firmly on the table.

Three witnesses testified for the plaintiff: Junji Miyakana, president of the plaintiff company, who had had 35 years’ experience in handling chinaware; Harry II. Lenney, a partner of The Arlen China Co., importer of china and glassware, who had had 27 years’ experience in the ceramic and porcelain business; and Samuel D. Goldstein, who has been engaged for 31 years in selling dinnerware to theaters.

Mr. Miyakana testified that he was familiar with various types of plates, such as bread-and-butter plates, tea plates, pie plates, salad plates, luncheon plates, breakfast plates, dinner plates, service plates, and chop plates. He said that plaintiff’s exhibit 1 was called a coupe soup and was not a plate. It was more a type of bowl or a dish and was used for the service of soup or cereal. He had also handled an article called a deep plate, which has a rim about 1 inch in width. In his understanding, the term “soup plate” refers only to a deep plate having a rim. It differs from plaintiff’s exhibit 1 in that it has a rim and has a slightly smaller capacity.

According to the witness, the term “coupe” is used in the trade to refer to ceramic tableware which is rimless. However, coupe-shaped soups are sold as parts of sets of both rimmed and rimless dinnerware.

Mr. Lenney called the imported merchandise a coupe soup and said it was a rimless soup dish and not a plate or a bowl. In Ms business, it was always called a coupe soup.

Mr. Goldstein said the merchandise was a coupe soup or a cereal soup and was not a plate but a soup dish.

[23]*23These witnesses had also handled an article called a deep plate, a deep soup plate, or a rimmed soup plate and were in agreement with Mr. Miyakana that it differed from the imported merchandise chiefly in having a rim.

Plaintiff’s three witnesses were in agreement with the following definition of the term “plate” in Webster’s New International Dictionary, 1953 edition:

A shallow, usually circular, vessel of china, earthenware, metal, or wood, from which food is eaten. The standard crockery plates range from six to eleven inches in diameter. In order of size they are: t>read-amd-l)utter plate, dessert plate, tea plate, breaTefast plate, dimmer plate, and service, or place plate-, b a similarly shaped but often more ornamental dish from which food is served; as, a cake plate; a butter plate. [Italics quoted.]

Mr. Lenney described an article known as a lug soup as being smaller than plaintiff’s exhibit 1, and having ears or extensions protruding for the edges. Mr. Goldstein stated that there was a difference in the trade between plates and dishes; that plates included saucers, and bread-and-butter, salad, chop, and cake plates, and that dishes included fruits, cereals, coupe soups, and cereal soups.

There were received in evidence, as plaintiff’s collective exhibit 2, pricelists of The Harker China Co. and The Taylor, Smith & Taylor Co., both of East Liverpool, Ohio. Two of them list “Coup-Soup” and “Lug Soup,” and one lists “Soups, Him” and “Soups, Lug.”

Defendant called four witnesses: Sigmund Sigmund, sales and import manager of Crown Ford China Co., importer of fine English earthenware dinnerware; Donald M. Miller, vice president of Mad-dock & Miller, Inc., dealer in English china and earthenware and domestic hotel ware, who had been in the business for 46 years; Arthur G. Eenz, New York manager of the Edwin M. Knowles China Co., manufacturer of dinnerware, earthenware, and vitrified china, who had been in the business since 1910; and William W. Hunter, a china and glass buyer for Plummer, Ltd., who has had experience in the dinnerware line for 57 years.

According to these witnesses, merchandise like plaintiff’s exhibit 1 is known, bought, and sold as a coupe soup plate and is differentiated from a rimmed soup plate by virtue of its shape only. They had never heard an article like the imported merchandise called a dish or a bowl or anything other than a soup plate. For instance, Mr. Miller, who had spoken to buyers all over the country, had never heard it called a soup bowl and said that, to his knowledge, no one in the trade had ever called it that.

Mr. Sigmund testified:

I can truthfully say, based on thousands of orders on paper, and requests on telephones for what we call fill-in open stock pieces, replacements of breakage, and so forth, the term, as I know it, and the request has always been for a soup plate, There are, however, instances, and I am guilty of it as well, where I [24]*24would just term it as a soup, for the sake of brevity. As a matter of fact, when we invoice this item, the biller just merely puts down “soup.”
Q. Xou mean items like Exhibit 1, when you say this item? — A. I’m sorry; Exhibit 1.
Q. And when you receive open stock orders for this type of item, meaning Plaintiff's Exhibit 1, how is it called? — A. To a great degree, soup plate; or, if not, merely soups.

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Related

New York Merchandise Co. v. United States
58 Cust. Ct. 93 (U.S. Customs Court, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
47 Cust. Ct. 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haruta-co-v-united-states-cusc-1961.