Liebert v. United States

287 F. Supp. 1008, 60 Cust. Ct. 677, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2311
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 26, 1968
DocketC.D. 3499 Protests 65/16181-25175, etc
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 287 F. Supp. 1008 (Liebert 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
Liebert v. United States, 287 F. Supp. 1008, 60 Cust. Ct. 677, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2311 (cusc 1968).

Opinion

BECKWORTH, Judge:

The merchandise involved in these cases consolidated at the trial, consists of parts of clutches for winches designated as Models 8A, 8G and 9, manufactured by Gearmatie, Ltd., of British Columbia. They were imported from Canada and entered at the port of Blaine, Washington, between May 1964 and March 1965. The merchandise was assessed with duty at 19 per centum ad valorem under item 680.54, Tariff Schedules of the United States, as parts of clutches. It is claimed to be dutiable at 10.5 per centum ad valorem under item 664.10, as parts of winches, or at 11.5 per centum ad valorem under item 692.35, as parts of tractors.

The pertinent provisions of the statute are as follows:

Item 680.54 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States:
Gear boxes and other speed changers with fixed, multiple, or variable ratios; pulleys, *1010 pillow blocks, and shaft couplings; torque converters; chain sprockets; clutches; and universal joints; all the foregoing and parts thereof (except parts of motor vehicles, aircraft, and bicycles):
* * * * * * * *
680.54 Chain sprockets, clutches, universal joints, and parts thereof..................19% ad val.
Item 664.10 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States:
Elevators, hoists, winches, cranes, jacks, pulley tackle, belt conveyors, and other lifting, handling, loading, or unloading machinery, and conveyors, all the foregoing and parts thereof not provided for in item 664.05 .... 10.5% ad val.
Item 692.35 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States:
Tractors (except tractors in item 692.40 and except automobile truck tractors), whether or not equipped with power takeoffs, winches, or pulleys, and parts of such tractors:
♦X- if * -X* ■S' -X- #
692.35 Other...............................11.5% ad val.
General Headnotes and Rules of Interpretation:
10. General Interpretative Rules. For the purposes of these schedules—
********
(ij) a provision for "parts” of an article covers a product solely or chiefly used as a part of such article, but does not prevail over a specific provision for such part.

At the trial, plaintiff called three witnesses and introduced five exhibits into evidence. Plaintiff’s witnesses were C. F. Liebert, a licensed customhouse broker; William Bonar, sales and service manager of Gearmatic Co., Ltd., and Dwight Garrett, president and general manager of Garrett Enumclaw Company.

Mr. Bonar has been with Gearmatic for 21 years and said that its business is chiefly the manufacturer of winches. Prior to his association with Gearmatic, he had been logging manager for Beban Logging Company in British Columbia, and had previously been superintendent-manager with Crown Zellerbach of Canada. During that time he had operated all types of logging equipment including winches, hydraulic winches, tractor winches, tractors and trucks. Since his association with Gearmatic, he had sold winches and replacement parts all over the United States and in Canada. He sold winches designated as models 8A, 8G and 9 principally to tractor manufacturers. His experience included making calls on customers and dealers, training the men who go into the field, assisting them to train the customers, in the service department, and in the field. He had also made inspections in the field where problems occur with machinery to determine whether the difficulty was caused by the job, or a design failure, or weakness in the material in the products.

Mr. Garrett had been engaged in designing and manufacturing machinery, *1011 mostly logging machinery, since about 1938. His firm has manufactured rubber-tired logging arches that were used behind crawler tractors and rubber-tired skidders. It has put two tractors together to get more horsepower. At one time it put rubber tires on crawler tractors manufactured by International Harvester. In 1958 it manufactured the first “Tree Farmer” tractor, a rubber-tired tractor which has revolutionized the tractor industry. According to the witness, a few years ago 10 percent of the tractors used in log skidding were rubber-tired and 90 percent were crawler, but this has now been reversed. The witness had been active in the creation and design of the “Tree Farmer”, had supervised its sales in 5 Western States and Hawaii and Alaska, had observed its use and had tested it himself.

Mr. Liebert testified that he had prepared the entries before the court and also a list of the items involved herein (exhibit 1), which he said were replacement parts imported for various purchasers of Gearmatic winches. He had made entries of such items for Gearmatic at the rate of 10 a month for the past 10 years. He stated that prior to September 1, 1963, duty was assessed under paragraph 372, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified, as machines, not specially provided for, at 12% per centum to 10% per centum ad valorem depending upon the date of entry.

Mr. Bonar testified that he was personally familiar with the parts involved herein and said that Gearmatic had developed the winches designated as models 8A, 8G and 9, and held patents on them. He explained that they were designed specifically as tractor winches of the free spooling variety, meaning the type of winch in which the operator can release both the clutch and brake at the same time and allow the drum to turn freely so he can pull the cable off and rotate the spool magnet. These winches are designed specifically for various makes of tractors, both crawler and rubber-tired, and are used almost exclusively in the logging industry. They are attached to a tractor as a means of allowing it, through its power, to reach out to the cable, take the legs, pull them into the tractor and hold them there while the tractor moves to its destination. “Winching on the fly” is one of the features of the Gearmatic Model A and Model 9 winches. This term means that the winch can be used whether or not the tractor is moving, a characteristic which is desirable in light tractor operations.

In crawler type tractors, winches are installed on the large flat surface on the back of the tractor. In skidder applications the winch is normally bolted by the skidder manufacturer either from the top, the bottom, or the sides of the winch. For many skidder manufacturers Gearmatic provides specific bolting to suit their method of installation.

Mr. Bonar had never seen the Model 8A, 8G or 9 winch used in tractors other than those which he had described, which were used in the logging industry.

According to the witness, one of the major features of these winches is compactness. He explained that in skidders, there has to be room to get the rigging off the ground when towing a log and space cannot be used up. In a small crawler tractor, a large winch would increase the distance from the rear axle of the tractor and complicate steering.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. v. United States
19 Ct. Int'l Trade 378 (Court of International Trade, 1995)
W.Y. Moberly, Inc. v. United States
10 Ct. Int'l Trade 497 (Court of International Trade, 1986)
Amersham Corp. v. United States
564 F. Supp. 813 (Court of International Trade, 1983)
Pollard Bearings Corp. v. United States
71 Cust. Ct. 1 (U.S. Customs Court, 1973)
Castle & Cooke, Inc. v. United States
68 Cust. Ct. 75 (U.S. Customs Court, 1972)
Korody-Colyer Corp. v. United States
66 Cust. Ct. 337 (U.S. Customs Court, 1971)
Humphreys v. United States
66 Cust. Ct. 24 (U.S. Customs Court, 1971)
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. United States
65 Cust. Ct. 498 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
American Express Co. v. United States
65 Cust. Ct. 343 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
Liebert v. United States
65 Cust. Ct. 202 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
American Laubscher Corp. v. United States
64 Cust. Ct. 384 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
Deere & Co. v. United States
64 Cust. Ct. 308 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
Great Western Sugar Co. v. United States
64 Cust. Ct. 127 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)
Fritz v. United States
63 Cust. Ct. 484 (U.S. Customs Court, 1969)
Robert Bosch Corp. v. United States
63 Cust. Ct. 158 (U.S. Customs Court, 1969)
West Coast Glass Distributors v. United States
62 Cust. Ct. 444 (U.S. Customs Court, 1969)
Wilfred Schade & Co. v. United States
62 Cust. Ct. 138 (U.S. Customs Court, 1969)
Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. v. United States
61 Cust. Ct. 284 (U.S. Customs Court, 1968)
Foster Wheeler Corp. v. United States
61 Cust. Ct. 166 (U.S. Customs Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
287 F. Supp. 1008, 60 Cust. Ct. 677, 1968 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liebert-v-united-states-cusc-1968.