Lehn & Fink Inc. v. United States

12 Ct. Cust. 359, 1924 WL 26716, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 87
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 22, 1924
DocketNo. 2374
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 12 Ct. Cust. 359 (Lehn & Fink Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lehn & Fink Inc. v. United States, 12 Ct. Cust. 359, 1924 WL 26716, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 87 (ccpa 1924).

Opinion

Gkaham, Presiding Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The importation in this case is cresylic acid in drums. The collector assessed it for duty at 40 per cent ad valorem, and 7 cents per pound under paragraph 27, tariff act of 1922, the essential parts of which are:

27. Coal-tar products: * * * metacresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more, naphthalene which after the removal of all water present has a solidifying point of seventy-nine degrees centigrade or above, orthocresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more, paracresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more; all the foregoing products in this paragraph whether obtained, derived, or manufactured from coal tar or other source; all distillates of coal tar, blast-furnace tar, oil-gas tar, and water-gas tar, which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids equal to or more than 5 per,centum of the original distillate or which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion.distilling below two hundred and fifteen degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids equal to or more than 75 per centum of the original distillate; all similar products by whatever name known, which are obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from any of the products provided for in this paragraph, or from any of the products provided for in paragraph 1549; all mixtures, including solutions, consisting in whole or in part of any of the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, except sheep dip and medicinal soaps; all the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, not colors, dyes,-or stains, color acids, color bases, color lakes, leuco-compounds, indoxyl, indoxyl compounds, ink powders, photographic chemicals, medicináis, synthetic aromatic or odoriferous chemicals, synthetic resinlike products, synthetic tanning materials, or explosives, and not specially provided for in paragraph 28 or 1549, 40 per centum ad'valorem based upon the American selling price (as defined in subdivision (f) of section 402, Title IV) of any similar competitive article manufactured or produced in the United States, and 7 cents per pound: * * *

The Board of General Appraisers, on protest and appeal, affirmed the decision of the collector, and the importer appeals, claiming free entry of the goods under paragraph 1549 of the same act, which is as follows:

1549. Coal-tar products: Acenaphthene, anthracene having a purity of less than 30 per centum, benzene, carbazole having a purity of less than 65 per [361]*361•centum, cumene, cymene, fluorene, methylanthracene, methylnaphthalene, naphthalene which after the removal of all the water present has a solidifying point less than seventy-nine degrees centigrade, pyridine, toluene, xylene, dead or creosote oil, anthracene oil, pitch of coal tar, pitch of blast-furnace tar, pitch of oil-gas tar, pitch of water-gas tar, crude coal tar, crude blast-furnace tar, crude oil-gas tar, crude water-gas tar, all other distillates of any of these tars which on being subjected to distillation .yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids less than 5 per centum of the original distillate, all mixtures of any of these distillates and any of the foregoing pitches, and all other materials or products that are found naturally in coal tar, whether produced or obtained from coal tar or other source, and not specially provided for in paragraph 27 or 28 of Title I of this Act.

No issue of fact is here presented to us. It is admitted that the cresylic acid imported is a distillate of coal tar which, on being subjected to distillation, yields in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade, a quantity of tar acids less than .5 per cent of the original distillate and when subjected to distillation yields in the portion, distilling below two hundred and fifteen degrees centigrade, a quantity of tar acids more than 75 per cent of the original distillate.

There is accordingly but one question of law involved: Is the material imported within the scope of paragraph 27, or is it free of duty under paragraph 1549?

Paragraph 1549, tariff act of 1922, places upon the free list certain coal-tar products. It first specifies eo nomine, certain products. It is manifest, from a consideration of these products so named, that the Congress was intending to admit free of duty raw materials or products but little advanced for the use of American manufacturers; for example, “ anthracene having a purity of less than 30 per centum,” “carbazole having a purity of less than 65 per centum,” “napthalene which, after the removal of all the water present, has a solidifying point less than seventy-nine degrees centigrade,” creosote oil,' pitches of various tars and crude tars. If reference is made to any standard work on coal-tar derivatives as to the composition and properties of' the various products identified eo nomine, in paragraph 1549, it will be found that each and all of them are crude materials, little used themselves, but highly valuable for the various products to be derived therefrom by various chemical and manufacturing processes. — Dictionary of Applied Chemistry (Thorpe); Coal Tar and Ammonia (Lunge); Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis (Vol. III).

Paragraph 1549, after specifying the above named products, then includes “ all other distillates of any of these tars which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids less than 5 per centum of the original distillate.” The paragraph then provides for any mixtures of the foregoing distillates and pitches, and then adds this language: “and all other materials or products that are found [362]*362naturally in coal tar, whether produced or obtained from coal tar or other source, and not specially provided for in paragraph 27 or 28 of Title I of this Act.”

It is apparent that the language "and not specially provided for, etc.” refers to all that part of the paragraph following the eo nomine designations of products and would thus include "all other distillates,” "all mixtures,” "and all other materials or products.” It is claimed by appellant that the "not specially provided for” clause should apply only to "all other materials or products,” its last antecedent, and reference is made to Irwin & Co. v. United States (2 Ct. Cust. Appls. 296; T. D. 32039). It is true that the opinion in the case cited recognizes this as the usual rule of grammatical construction, but also comments as follows:

Such a rule is, however, only the beginning of a real inquiry into the subject, because, manifestly, it must yield if other and controlling reasons appear to the contrary.

The language of paragraphs 27 and 1549 is to be construed together and every effort is to be made to give full force and effect to all language in each paragraph. —United States v. Ninety-nine Diamonds (139 Fed. 961); Sonneborn Sons v. United States (1 Ct. Cust. Appls. 443; T. D. 31504).

Thus construed, ' ‘ all other distillates of any of these tars which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade, a quantity of tar acids less than 5 per centum of the original distillate,

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12 Ct. Cust. 359, 1924 WL 26716, 1924 CCPA LEXIS 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lehn-fink-inc-v-united-states-ccpa-1924.