Knickerbocker Mills Co. v. United States

11 Cust. Ct. 33, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3014
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 30, 1943
DocketC. D. 788
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 11 Cust. Ct. 33 (Knickerbocker Mills 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
Knickerbocker Mills Co. v. United States, 11 Cust. Ct. 33, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3014 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Cline, Judge:

This is a suit against the United States in which the plaintiffs protest against the assessment of duty on certain- dried huckleberries at the rate of 2% cents per pound under the provision for “Berries, edible, * * * dried” in paragraph 736 of the Tariff Act of 1930. In the protests filed with the collector the merchandise is claimed to be free of duty under either paragraph 1669 or paragraph 1722, but these claims do not appear to be relied upon by the plaintiffs. Amendments to the protests were granted by the court in which it is claimed that the commodity is free of duty under paragraph 1670 and this latter claim is the one relied upon. That provision reads as follows:

Par. 1670. Dyeing or tanning materials: Fustic wood, hemlock bark, log-wood, mangrove bark, oak bark, quebracho wood, wattle bark, divi-divi, myrob-alans fruit, sumac, valonia, nutgalls or gall nuts, and all articles of vegetable origin used for dyeing, coloring, staining, or tanning, all the foregoing, whether crude or advanced in value or condition by shredding, grinding, chipping, crush[34]*34ing, or any similar process; all the foregoing not containing alcohol and not specially provided for.

The three cases herein involved were consolidated for trial and the plaintiffs introduced the record in the case of Knickerbocker Mills Co. v. United States, 6 Cust. Ct. 262, C. D. 478, which covered the same kind of merchandise imported by one of the plaintiffs in this case.

The first witness called by the plaintiff in the incorporated record was a chemist employed by the importing firm. He testified that during his 4% years of experience with that firm he had analyzed every shipment of dried hucldeberries received, and found that no alcohol was contained therein; that he sold all of the berries to two firms in New York City and visited those firms every week or two during the past 2% years and found that they used the berries to extract coloring matter therefrom; that he had not sold such berries to food manufacturers, and, inasmuch as they contained from 5 to 6 per centum of acid insoluble ash, he was of opinion that they were not fit for human consumption. He testified further that, prior to his employment by the importing firm, he had been engaged in the sale of such berries on his own account and made sales to the Mohawk Liquor Co., Hiram Walker & Sons, and Schenley Distillers, Inc.; that he showed those firms how to use the berries for coloring cordials and saw them use the articles for that purpose; that his entire experience with them in the United States extended over a period of 9% years, but he had been familiar with them for 20 years, as his father had his own plantation in Hungary where he planted and studied the bushes.

The plaintiffs’ second witness was a chemist who for 2 years was in charge of the production of fruit extracts for the firm of Fries & Bros., one of the customers of Knickerbocker Mills Co. He testified that his firm made fruit extracts for coloring purposes from the berries; that, prior to his employment with Fries & Bros., he worked for 1 year as a chemist in charge of production of cordials with Schen-ley Distilleries, Inc.; that dried huckleberries were used, by that firm for coloring cordials; that previously he was employed for 5 months by H. Barrett of Brooklyn, N. Y., a producer of fine extracts, and dried hucldeberries were used for coloring by that firm; that during his experience with those three firms he had used them only as coloring. On cross-examination he testified that he had been in the United States only 3 years.

The defendant called a witness who was connected with the Greenwich Processing Co. of Brooklyn, N. Y. He testified that for 10 years, from 1928 to 1937, his firm had used dried hucldeberries from Russia and Poland for making pie filling which he sold to bakers’ supply houses and wholesale manufacturing bakers and that he had [35]*35seen the purchasers use the filling for making huckleberry pies and had eaten pie made from such filling; that such use was the only use of the berries with which he was acquainted; that the berries were not used in pie fillings for coloring purposes.

In the Knickerbocker Mills Co. case, supra, the court held on that record that the plaintiff had not proved the chief use of the merchandise to be for coloring purposes. The court said:

The philosophy of the rule relied upon, as we gather it, is that the exception or the out of the ordinary use of a product will not give that use, i. e. the exceptional use, classification to the product. It will still be controlled by the common or the ordinary use made of such product. If we apply that theory to the testimony in’this case, backed by the common knowledge of experience as to the general use of berries of this type, before drying, plus the common knowledge of which the court may take judicial notice that many dried fruits are' commonly used'as food, plus the collector’s action herein, it seems to us that the importer has not established that dried huckleberries, such as were imported, are chiefly used in this country in the manufacture of coloring matter.
Moreover, we have the presence of the “not specially provided for” clause in paragraph 1670 to consider in determining the issue here presented. Congress there provided for all the articles named with the limiting phrases “not containing alcohol” and “not specially provided for.” The huckleberries in suit do not contain alcohol, but they are specially provided for in the act as “berries, edible,. * * * dried,” and are, therefore, excluded from the operation of said paragraph 1670.

In tbe instant case, tbe plaintiffs introduced tbe testimony of two witnesses in additio’n to tbe evidence in tbe incorporated record. Tbe first witness, Miss Alice Reilly, merely identified certain shipments of dried huckleberries. Tbe second witness, Mr. Walter J. Bott, is employed by S. B. Penick & Co., one of tbe plaintiffs. He testified that be is director of sales for that firm in tbe eastern partof theUnited States and is sales director for various allied lines throughout tbe other parts of tbe country; that previous to bis employment by S. B. Penick & Co., that is from 1929 to 1937 or 1938, be was employed by J. L. Hopkins & Co., another botanical drug firm, as purchasing agent abroad and for tbe promotion of sales in the United States; that since 1929 be has sold dried huckleberries in the United States and has seen such berries used in most of tbe industries; that be has sold them to various pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesale druggists, soft beverage manufacturers, distillers, cordial manufacturers, bakers’ supply bouses, firms using them for coloring cough sirups, and also to a trade known as consultants; that tbe berries are an instant coloring-article; that “you can put them in water, and they form an instant, color solution of a purplish shade.”

Tbe witness produced a sample of tbe berries and it was received in evidence and marked exhibit 2 and he made a demonstration on tbe witness stand by putting tbe berries in a iar of water and shaking tbe mixture, showing that tbe water turned purple in color. This jar was marked illustrative exhibit A.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Cust. Ct. 33, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 3014, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knickerbocker-mills-co-v-united-states-cusc-1943.