Hensel, Bruckmann & Lorbacher, Inc. v. United States

20 Cust. Ct. 327, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 313
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 4, 1948
DocketNo. 52364; protest 98770-K (New York)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 20 Cust. Ct. 327 (Hensel, Bruckmann & Lorbacher, Inc. 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
Hensel, Bruckmann & Lorbacher, Inc. v. United States, 20 Cust. Ct. 327, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 313 (cusc 1948).

Opinion

Oliver, Presiding Judge:

This suit by the plaintiff is for the recovery of certain customs duty alleged to have been improperly exacted on an importation of an article classified by the collector at the port of New York as “a spectrometer or as an optical measuring or testing instrument” and assessed for duty at the rate of 60 percent ad valorem under paragraph 228 (a), Tariff Act of 1930. As originally filed, the protest claimed the article to be properly dutiable as a “scientific instrument” at the rate of 40 percent ad valorem under paragraph 360, and by timely amendment alternative claims were added for duty at the rate of 20 percent ad valorem under said paragraph 360, as modified by the trade agreement with Switzerland, T. D. 48093, or at 45 percent ad valorem under the provision in paragraph 228 (b) of the same act for “optical instruments.” The provisions of the tariff act, so far as pertinent, are as follows:

Par. 228. (a) Speetographs, spectrometers * * * optical measuring or optical testing instruments, * * * and parts of any of the foregoing; all the foregoing, finished or unfinished, 60 per centum ad valorem.
(b) Azimuth mirrors * * * all optical instruments * * * and parts' of any of the foregoing; all the foregoing, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for, 45 per centum ad valorem.
Par. 360. Scientific and laboratory instruments * * * and parts thereof, wholly or in chief value of metal, and not plated with gold, silver, or platinum, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for, 40 per centum ad valorem; * * *: Provided, That all articles specified in this paragraph, .when imported, shall have the name of the maker or purchaser and beneath the same the name of the country of origin die sunk conspicuously and indelibly on the outside * * *.
Par. 360 [as modified by the trade agreement with Switzerland, T. D. 48093]:
Laboratory instruments, apparatus, or appliances, for determining the strength of materials or articles in tension, compression, torsion, or shear, and parts of the foregoing; any of the foregoing wholly or in chief value of metal, and not plated with gold, silver, or platinum, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for ... 20 per cent ad valorem.

The collector, in response to the plaintiff’s exception to the classification made, conceded the article at bar to be a scientific instrument within the meaning of paragraph 360 but stated that “this paragraph carries the proviso, ‘not specially provided for’, while paragraph 228 (a), under which it is specifically provided for, either as a spectrometer or as an optical measuring instrument, does not contain this proviso.” Concededly, the imported article is a “scientific instrument” under paragraph 360, unless it is a “spectrometer” or an “optical measuring or optical testing instrument,” specifically provided for, under paragraph 288 (a).

The case was submitted for decision upon a written stipulation between ihe respective parties herein which conceded, firstly, that the imported article is in chief value of metal, not plated with gold, silver,' or platinum, and when imported had the name of the maker and beneath the same the name of the country of origin die sunk conspicuously and indelibly on the outside. It was further [328]*328stipulated and agreed that plaintiff’s witness, Professor Athelstan F. Spilhaus, whose full qualifications to give such testimony are enumerated on pages 2, 3, and 4 of the stipulation which is made a part of our decision herein, would testify, as outlined in the stipulation, as if he had duly testified as such a witness upon the trial of this case. Such testimony, so far as pertinent to the issue before us, set forth in the respective pages of the stipulation, is as follows:

Ozone has the property of absorbing strongly certain wave lengths of light in the ultra violet region. The more ozone present, the more light is absorbed. Thus by taking two wave lengths of light in the ultra violet, one of which is very strongly absorbed by ozone and the other of which is little or not at all absorbed, the amount of ozone may be measured by the relative intensities of light in these two wave lengths as it reaches the ground after passing through the ozone layer. Because we are dealing with ultra violet light, the device embodies quartz windows, prisms and lens system. It also utilizes a rotating shutter, similar in effect to the shutter of a motion picture camera, the purpose of this being to allow the two wa,ve lengths to fall alternately onto a photo-electric cell. The photo-electric cell is connected to a four-stage electronic amplifier which is in effect identical to the amplifier of an ordinary radio. The amplified current, after it has become rectified by direct current, is made to give an indication on an ordinary galvanometer. From this indication, measurements of ozone in the upper atmosphere are obtained. [Stipulation pp. 5, 6.]
A spectrometer is an instrument used for observing the spectrum; measuring the deviations of refractive rays; determining wavelengths; and measuring angles between two faces of a prism. The imported instrument does not perform any of these functions. Its sole purpose is to measure ozone in the upper atmosphere. [Stipulation p. 7.]
* * * The fact that optical parts are used as a subordinate part of the equipment and the fact that invisible portions of the light spectrum are incidentally utilized in the measurement of ozone content are coincidental because an ozonom-eter [which the imported instrument is now called] might be built utilizing entirely different principles. [Stipulation p. 6.] t

The instrument at bar is in no way, an aid to vision. The invisible rays of sunlight which are utilized are merely used because they happen to be absorbed or not by ozone. The only visible indication on this instrument is the deflection of a galvanometer, from which deflection the concentration of ozone is derived by the use of mathematics (stipulation p. 6). The optical system of the imported instrument is used only to segregate the desired wave lengths and concentrate them electrically upon the photoelectric cell. The optical system of the device at bar is neither used nor designed to observe the spectrum, nor to measure the deviation of refractive rays, nor to determine wave lengths, nor to measure angles between two faces of a prism (stipulation pp. 7, 8).

A necessary prerequisite to classifying the article at bar as an “optical instrument” is that it “aids vision.” (United States v. Bliss, 6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 433, T. D. 35980; G. W. Sheldon v. United States, T. D. 42508, 52 Treas. Dec. 454.) The testimony of the plaintiff’s witness indicates that the instrument before us is in no way an aid to vision. The invisible rays of sunlight which are utilized are merely used because they happen to be absorbed or not by ozone. The fact that an instrument may have an optical system in the form of lenses, prisms, and mirrors, and that it uses principles established in the science of optics, does not make it an optical instrument. We are of the opinion, therefore, that the imported article is not an “optical instrument” as contemplated by the provisions of paragraph 228 (b) of the tariff act. Neither is the instrument before us an optical measuring or optical testing instrument so as to fall within, the provisions of paragraph 228 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 Cust. Ct. 327, 1948 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hensel-bruckmann-lorbacher-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1948.