John Heathcoat & Co. v. United States

15 Cust. Ct. 117, 1945 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 495
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 11, 1945
DocketC. D. 956
StatusPublished

This text of 15 Cust. Ct. 117 (John Heathcoat & 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
John Heathcoat & Co. v. United States, 15 Cust. Ct. 117, 1945 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 495 (cusc 1945).

Opinion

Ekwall, Judge:

A quantity of merchandise described on the invoices as rayon nets and rayon nets in the gray was imported at the port of New York and assessed with duty at 65 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1529 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930 as modified by the trade agreement with Great Britain (T. D. 49753). The paragraph, as so modified, provides for:

Nets and nettings made on the bobbinet machine, hot embroidered:
Wholly or in chief value of rayon or other synthetic textile * * * .

[118]*118Before this modification the paragraph provided, among Other things, for:

* * *' all fabrics and articles made on a lace or net machine * * *.

In addition to this regular duty, there was assessed a countervailing duty of 5.69 pence per pound under section 303 of the same act, by virtue of the order of the Secretary of the Treasury (T. D. 47594) which extended the effective date of the countervailing duty rates published in T. D. 47502, which, in turn, supplemented T. D. 43634. Said 5.69 pence per pound represents the net amount of the bounty found by the Secretary to have been paid by the British Government upon the exportation of artificial silk fabrics from England, by means of a drawback of double the amount of the British excise tax which had been paid on such merchandise.

The order of the Secretary in which the net amount of the bounty was declared (T. D. 47502) describes the merchandise upon which countervailing duties were to be collected as follows:

(1) Artificial silk fabrics made from artificial silk on which a British excise tax of 6 pence per pound has been assessed and on which a drawback of 12 pence per pound has been allowed.

The order further states that:

The net amount of bounties or grants on the commodities described above are hereby ascertained, determined, and declared to be the amounts set forth in the above table.

There is no dispute about the regular duty, but plaintiff herein claims that rayon nettings are not “fabrics” such as are described in said T. D. 47502, and therefore he contends that the Secretary has never ascertained and determined or estimated the net amount of any bounty or grant on merchandise like that in suit, nor has he declared the net amount so determined or estimated.

The Government contends that nets and nettings are fabrics, both in their common and trade meanings, and have been so classified since the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1930; that the amendment to paragraph 1529 (a), supra, by the British Trade Agreement merely served to carve out of that paragraph one form of “fabrics * * * made on a * * * net machine,” viz, “Nets and nettings made on the bobbinet machine,” and to reduce the duty thereon from 90 per centum to 65 per centum.

At the trial plaintiff's counsel offered and.there were received in evidence the official papers forwarded by the collector to the court, together with two illustrative samples of the merchandise, which counsel agreed are representative of the merchandise here involved except as to widths and lengths.

On the part of the Government, evidence was introduced in the form of testimony of the Government examiner who had passed upon this line of merchandise at the port of New York for over 15 years and [119]*119who advisorily classified the goods now before us. He testified that during his experience he had investigated the methods of manufacturing rayon nettings and also the machines on which they are made, although he stated that in this country the bobbinet machine is the only net machine available for close study. From his testimony it is clear that since the enactment of the'Tariff Act of 1930, this type of merchandise has been classified as rayon "fabrics * * * made on a * * * net machine, by whatever name known,” under the provision therefor in paragraph 1529 (a).

There were also introduced by the Government two entry papers of merchandise entered in 1935 and 1938, respectively, covering importations of rayon nettings similar to those here involved made by the same manufacturer and brought into the United States by the same importer. The Government examiner testified that he had advisorily classified the rayon nettings in both of these importations as “rayon fabrics made on a net machine,” under said paragraph 1529 (a).

In answer to interrogations as to the administrative practice under prior tariff acts, the examiner pointed out that there was a specific provision in paragraph 1430 of the Tariff Act of 1922 for nets or net-tings, wholly or in chief value of products of cellulose described in paragraph 1213 of that act, but that with the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1930, the only provision in that act which included rayon nets and nettings was found in the paragraph now -under discussion, 1529 (a), which covered fabrics made on a net machine.

This witness further testified that in his discussions with importers of artificial sill?; nets and nettings during his many years of experience they had referred to- such goods as fabrics.

The plaintiff herein did not dispute notations on the invoice in this case furnished by the foreign manufacturer as to the amount of the excise duty paid on the rayon content and the drawback on such rayon content of the merchandise at bar. Nor is it disputed that such action would constitute a bounty or grant. It, therefore, is clear that the British Government did, in fact, grant a bounty such as is contemplated by section 303, supra, on the exportation of this merchandise. Plaintiff also admits in its brief that there is no doubt that a net or netting is a fabric in the generic sense of that term, but claims that it is not a fabric in the tariff sense. However, the cases cited in support of this proposition fail to sustain plaintiff’s contention. In the case of Bullocks, Inc. v. United States, 6 Cust. Ct. 110, C. D. 441, regular duty was assessed on silk mufflers as “articles,” whereas countervailing duty was assessed under the classification of “fabrics.” In Joseph Schmidt, Inc. v. United States, 9 Cust. Ct. 188, C. D. 690, papier-máché figures were classified as toy figures for countervailing duty purposes but held to be “manufactures of papier-máché, not specially provided for,” for regular duty purposes. In both cases the court held in effect that if the merchandise did not fall under a [120]*120certain, designation for regular duty purposes, there would seem to be no justification for bolding it classifiable under that designation for countervailing duty purposes.

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Related

Bullocks, Inc. v. United States
6 Cust. Ct. 110 (U.S. Customs Court, 1941)
Joseph Schmidt, Inc. v. United States
9 Cust. Ct. 188 (U.S. Customs Court, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
15 Cust. Ct. 117, 1945 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-heathcoat-co-v-united-states-cusc-1945.