Hing Wah Tai v. United States

17 Cust. Ct. 67, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 498
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedSeptember 6, 1946
Docket(C. D. 1022)
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Cust. Ct. 67 (Hing Wah Tai 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
Hing Wah Tai v. United States, 17 Cust. Ct. 67, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 498 (cusc 1946).

Opinion

Cole, Judge:

Paragraph 721 (e) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1001, par. 721 (e)) provides for “Oysters, oyster [68]*68juice, or either in combination with other substances, packed in airtight containers, 8 cents per pound, including weight of immediate container,” which the collector invoked in classifying the merchandise in question, described on the invoices as “oyster sauce.” Plaintiff’s principal claim is for free entry under paragraph 1761 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1201, par. 1761), reading-as follows: “Shrimps, lobsters, and other-shellfish, fresh or frozen (whether or not packed in ice), or prepared or preserved in any manner (including pastes and sauces), and not specially provided for.” The protests embody several alternative claims, none of which was stressed at the trial or in counsel’s brief. Therefore, no further reference is made herein to them.

Substantially the same merchandise was the subject of previous litigation. The time consumed and the diligence displayed in the previous cases present much, as should be expected, to clarify the purpose of this further trial and amplify our disposition of the new issues.

Shun Yuen Hing & Co. et al. v. United States, 23 C. C. P. A. 316, T. D. 48178, was the first case. The court found the merchandise to be “a rather heavy dark liquid imported in bottles, [which] is used by the Chinese chiefly in the kitchen as a flavoring in the cooking of foods, such as meat, fish, and eggs, although it is sometimes used at the table on such foods after they have been cooked,” and that it was prepared in the following manner "by the use of approximately 133% pounds of oysters, 10% pounds of salt, and 6% gallons of water”:

Oysters, salt, and water are used only. First the oysters are removed from the shell, then put in a pan. Salt and water are added. The mixture is steamed for three hours. The oysters are then removed. The water left in the pan is placed in earthenware jars where it is kept for two months. After two months the skim is removed and the remainder, which is the oyster sauce, is packed in bottles or cans.

In sustaining the collector’s classification under paragraph 721 (e), supra, the court said:

According to the testimony in this case, oysters Were included in the mixture during the steaming process, but were removed after the steaming process. .Whether the steaming process dissolved a portion of the oysters, does not appear, and, so far as we can ascertain from the record, the involved merchandise is nothing more than oyster juice in combination with salt and water, steamed. Accordingly, the involved merchandise is not oysters, prepared or preserved in the form of a sauce or otherwise, and, therefore, is dutiable under the provisions of paragraph 721 (e), as held by the collector and the trial court.

The foregoing comment gave reason for the second case, Wo Kee & Co. et al. v. United States, 28 C. C. P. A. 272, C. A. D. 154, wherein plaintiff offered testimony, not introduced in the earlier case, of a biochemist and pharmacologist to show that the imported merchandise contained a substantial proportion of the oysters apart from oyster [69]*69juice. The witness conducted microscopic examinations of the commodity in controversy as well as of oyster juice. His analysis of the imported product disclosed cellular structures, some of which are characteristic of shellfish, but he was unable to state "any particular variety of shellfish in which they originated.” In his microscopic examination of oyster juice, the witness found no cellular structures but only “clear, colorless fluid, which smelled like the oysters from which it was derived, and was slightly more viscous than water.” The court held that such additional testimony did not “substantially change either the factual or legal situation,” existing in the Shun Yuen Hing case, supra, and stated:

The fact that a microscopic’ examination discloses some cellular structure in the involved merchandise, which structure is not visible to the naked eye, does not convince us that the merchandise is not “oyster juice, * * * in combination with other substances.” We do not think its identity as oyster juice was lost because of its being extracted from the oysters through a boiling or steaming process. It is a matter of common knowledge that in extracting or expressing juice from lemons, oranges, and other fruits, some of the fiber or cellular structure may be included in the juice extracted; but surely the juice would not lose its character of juice because of that fact.

In the course of its decision, again affirming the collector’s classification under paragraph 721 (e), supra, the court observed that much testimony relating to the use of the imported merchandise was offered by the importer to establish that the product is a shellfish sauce, and not oyster juice, and made the further comment that no claim of commercial designation was made.

The instant case has been presented on the principle of commercial designation, and in doing so, plaintiff introduced the testimony of four Chinese witnesses. Giving their combined testimony' the broadest interpretation favorable to plaintiff’s position, it can be said that the term “shellfish sauce,” as generally recogmzed by Chinese merchants, is a liquid or semi-liquid, made with shellfish or flavored with its juice, prepared with a mixture of two or more substances, and used for flavoring food, that the said term is a generic one, embracing shrimp sauce, oyster sauce, and clam sauce, and that the merchandise in question is one of the kinds of shellfish sauce, never dealt in as such, but always bought and sold under the specific name “oyster sauce.”

The effect of such testimony is to show that the product under consideration is commercially known as oyster sauce. But the term “oyster sauce” is not used in the statute, and therefore a showing of such commercial designation does not accomplish plaintiff’s obj ective. It is fundamental that proof of commercial designation must be directed to the precise statutory language or designation involved, United States v. Armand Schwab & Co., Inc., et al., 30 C. C. P. A. 72, C. A. D. 218.

[70]*70Cases on commercial designation are numerous. Neuman & Schwiers Co., Inc. v. United States, 24 C. C. P. A. 127, T. D. 48606, stated the rule as follows:

* * * The Supreme Court * * ’ * as in the noted case of Two Hundred Chests of Tea, 9 Wheat. 428, recognized that customs laws were particularly-adapted for use by merchants, and that it might well be that commodities which were well known among those who were engaged in the trade, under a certain designation might not be so known, by those who were not engaged in trade; that the Congress was to be understood as speaking in terms of the trade; and that if an article, although not commonly known as designated by the law, was uniformly, definitely, and generally known by that designation in the trade and commerce of the country, it should be included within the statutory term. This rule has been carried down through the years, continuously. * * *

The Armand Schwab & Co., Inc., case, supra,

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Bluebook (online)
17 Cust. Ct. 67, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hing-wah-tai-v-united-states-cusc-1946.