Iroquois China Co. v. United States

55 Cust. Ct. 190, 1965 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2610
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedSeptember 22, 1965
DocketC.D. 2574
StatusPublished

This text of 55 Cust. Ct. 190 (Iroquois China 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
Iroquois China Co. v. United States, 55 Cust. Ct. 190, 1965 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2610 (cusc 1965).

Opinions

Donlon, Judge:

Plaintiff imported from Japan at the port of New York in October and November 1959, certain articles, shaped like cups, plates, and other dishes, and it was stipulated that they are composed of a vitrified nonabsorbent body. They were described on the invoices and in the entries as chinaware and were returned as dutiable, under paragraph 212, at 45 per centum ad valorem. The merchandise was liquidated as entered, on April 4, 1960, and April 6, 1960.

By protest received at the Custom House in New York May 27, 1960, plaintiff protested the liquidation classification, claiming that the merchandise is “unfinished ware, unfinished chinaware,” and that duty should be at the rate of 15 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 214 “as amended.” This is the protest claim before us.

Plaintiff’s counsel, in his opening statement on trial, more particularly specified the protest claim, as follows:

We claim that the merchandise should be classified under Paragraph 21a-, at the rate of duty of 15 per centum, as manufactures of earthy or mineral substances or articles composed wholly or in chief value of earthy or mineral substances. [R. 2.]

On March 18, 1963, the parties answered “ready” when the case was called for trial. Plaintiff then introduced two articles representative of the merchandise in its imported condition, except that the cup was not broken when imported and it is now broken, and except that similar articles, but in other shapes and sizes, are also included in the entry merchandise.

It was stipulated “that the raw material which went into the manufacture of Collective Exhibit 1 is the usual earthy and mineral substances of which china is composed, and that Collective Exhibit 1 is composed of a vitrified non-absorbent body which when broken shows a vitrified or vitreous or semi-vitrified or semi-vitreous fracture.” It [192]*192was further stipulated “that the merchandise at bar has no color, glaze or decoration.”

On plaintiff’s request, trial was continued to the April 1963 term.

At the April term, the parties entered into further stipulations of fact, pursuant to plaintiff’s offer to stipulate, as follows:

Firstly, I offer to stipulate with Government counsel that the merchandise at bar was classified under the provisions of Paragraph 212, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified, as other vitrified wares, composed of a vitrified non-absorbent body, which when broken shows a vitrified, vitreous semi-vitrified, or semi-vitreous fracture * * * Other * * * not containing 25 per cent or more of calcined bone * * * Other, 45 per cent ad valorem.
Secondly, I offer to stipulate that after importation, the merchandise at bar is decorated and glazed, or glazed without decoration.
Thirdly, I offer into evidence as Plaintiff’s Illustrative Exhibit 2, these two plates — Collective Illustrative; and I offer to stipulate * * * that Collective Exhibit 1 represents the merchandise in its condition as imported.
* * * I further offer to stipulate that after glazing and/or decorating and glazing the merchandise is sold at the retail level as china tableware.
Plaintiff’s Collective Illustrative Exhibit 2 represents the merchandise at bar which has been decorated and glazed after importation, and that ware made by glazing, Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1, without decorating would be plain white. [R. 9, 10, 11.]

On this record, the parties rested and submitted. They requested leave to file briefs, which was granted.

Thereafter, and before the filing of briefs, plaintiff’s counsel moved to have submission set aside and the case set down for further trial in order that he might adduce the testimony of two witnesses, Mr. Ear] Crane and Mr. Robert E. Anderson. Defendant opposed the motion. It was granted, and the case was set down for trial at the December 1963 term. Plaintiff was not then ready to proceed, and the case was not again tried until the April 1964 term, when plaintiff concluded its case and rested.

Plaintiff’s sole witness was Mr. Robert E. Anderson. What became of Mr. Earl Crane, plaintiff’s president, was not explained. It was Mr. Crane whom plaintiff’s counsel held out, in his affidavit in support of the motion to reopen in order to take testimony, as the witness with “complete knowledge of the facts and circumstances surrounding the purchase, sale, commercial aspects and utility of the merchandise at bar, having been responsible for the planning and execution of the program of importation,” and who had not been available at the time of the 1963 trial. Mr. Crane, so counsel’s supporting affidavit recited, had “given the name of at least one other potential witness, Robert Anderson, who can testify as to the technical aspects of the manufacture of and utility of the merchandise at bar.” [Emphasis added.]

[193]*193Mr. Anderson, said that he is plaintiff’s vice president and general manager; that plaintiff, since 1895, has manufactured vitrified hotel chinaware; that, beginning in 1946, plaintiff began also to manufacture a line of home dinnerware, of the same body and glaze as its hotel chinaware; that it now has three additional lines of dinnerware, and has discontinued the production of hotel china.

Mr. Anderson took the degree of bachelor of ceramic engineering at Ohio State University in 1938 and (except for 3 years in the Army) had worked since 1938 as a ceramic engineer until he became plaintiff’s plant manager. His testimony is descriptive of the processes of manufacture, in Japan, of the articles of exhibit 1; of the problems and difficulties encountered in manufacture there; of procedures he devised to improve the J apanese product and make it more acceptable for plaintiff’s purposes; and of the finishing of the articles in plaintiff’s factory after importation. Some of his testimony repetitively deals with facts that had been stipulated.

Mr. Anderson testified, as to the J apanese process of manufacture, that articles such as collective exhibit 1 are “placed into a tunnel kiln and fired at approximately 2300 degrees Fahrenheit.” (R. 23.)

After importation, they are glazed and again fired in “a glost kiln at about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit * * (R. 24.) They are then sometimes decorated, sometimes not. If decorated, there is another firing “at a lower temperature” to fuse the decoration into the glaze surface. When finished, i.e., glazed and decorated, or merely glazed, the imported articles are sold as “Inheritance Fine China, Iroquois China Co., Syracuse, N.Y.” (Collective illustrative exhibit 2.)

In describing difficulties encountered in Japan, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
55 Cust. Ct. 190, 1965 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/iroquois-china-co-v-united-states-cusc-1965.