McKenzie v. United States

41 Cust. Ct. 43
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedAugust 5, 1958
DocketC. D. 2019
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 41 Cust. Ct. 43 (McKenzie 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
McKenzie v. United States, 41 Cust. Ct. 43 (cusc 1958).

Opinion

Mollison, Judge:

The two protests above enumerated were consolidated for trial. The record made on the trial is essentially a retrial of the issues decided by this division of the court in the case of Geo. S. Bush & Co., Inc., et al. v. United States, 39 Cust. Ct. 322, Abstract 60927, and the record in that case was incorporated as part of the record herein.

According to the evidence given by plaintiffs’ witness, the merchandise consists of what are known to the door manufacturing trade, including those who sell to that trade, as “doorskins.” They are used in the manufacture of what are known as “flush doors,” i. e., doors with plain faces, uninterrupted by panels, stiles, rails, etc., commonly seen on many doors. The doorskins consist of nothing more than sheets of wood of plywood construction, having three plies, one-eighth of an inch in total thickness, and cut in rectangular shape in dimensions slightly greater than those of standard size doors. Thus, the lengths of the doorskins for use on a standard 6-foot 8-inch door might be 80%, 80%, or 81 inches, while for a 7-foot door the length would be 85 inches. The widths of the doorskins are % to % of an inch greater than the standard widths of the doors with which they may be used, which apparently increase by 2-inch increments, from 22 to 36 inches.

The doorskins were classified by the collector under the provision for “Plywood * * * : Other [than certain named types of plywoods not here involved],” and he assessed duty thereon at the rate of 20 per centum ad valorem under that provision in paragraph 405 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Presidential proclamation, reported in T. D. 52739. The protest claim in each case is for duty at the rate of 16% per centum ad valorem under the provision in paragraph 412 of the said act, as modified by the Presidential proclamation, reported in T. D. 52373, for “Manufactures of wood * * * or of which wood * * * is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for: * * * Other [than certain named manufactures of which doorskins is not one].”

[45]*45On behalf of the plaintiffs, it is contended that the articles in issue are, in fact, designed, manufactured, and known as parts of doors, and are physically dedicated for use only as parts of doors. Consequently, it is argued, they have a name, character, and use different from the material, plywood, and are, in fact, manufactures of plywood, and, there being no more specific provision therefor, should take classification under the provision for manufactures of wood, not specially provided for.

On behalf of the defendant, it is contended that plywood is itself a manufacture of wood, and, being specially provided for, is not included in the provision for manufactures of wood, not specially provided for. Further, that the involved doorskins are merely a form of plywood, and not a manufacture of plywood, and, as such, take classification under the provision for plywood in paragraph 405, supra.

The record consists of the oral testimony, largely cumulative, of 11 witnesses called by the plaintiffs, one illustrative exhibit, and the record in the Bush case, supra. The latter consists of the oral testimony of two witnesses for the plaintiffs and four for the defendant, as well as one illustrative exhibit and two documentary exhibits offered in evidence by the plaintiffs in that case. In the incorporated record is a stipulation to the effect that the material of which the imported doorskins were made was plywood.

Despite the volume of evidence added by the oral testimony given at the trial of the present case, the evidentiary facts of the combined record are not materially different from those brought out in the trial of the Bush case, supra.

The involved doorskins were made of three plies of wood veneers, which, prior to importation, had been cut to size and glued together in the same manner as plywood is made. One face was required to be of lauan mahogany of the grade known as “good,” while the back could be of a lower grade. Both sides or faces were required to be scraped, and the good face was sanded. While there is some evidence that the glue used was of a particular quality, it does not appear that any of the foregoing conditions as to grade of faces, scraping and sanding, or quality of glue used would, either singly or in combination, take such merchandise out of the category of what is commonly or commercially known as plywood.

Plaintiffs contend that the merchandise at bar has a new name (doorskins), character (thickness and size), and use (as flush door faces) which are different from the material, plywood. Under the well-known principle of customs law with respect to the distinction between a material and manufactures of that material, plaintiffs argue that the doorskins at bar are manufactures of wood, rather than the material, plywood.

[46]*46With respect to the claim that the merchandise at bar bears a distinctive name different from that of plywood, it is noted that all of plaintiffs’ witnesses who were engaged in the purchase, sale, and use of plywood as well as doorskins indicated a personal adherence to the distinction between the terms. Yet, in plaintiffs’ exhibit 2 in the incorporated record, being a pamphlet issued by the United States Department of Commerce in 1955 and setting forth commercial standards adopted by the industry producing and dealing in hardwood veneered hollowcore flush doors, there is not one single reference to or use of the term “doorskins.” On the contrary, on page 5 of the said exhibit, it is stated that:

Face panels shall be plywood of two or more plies * * *

and, on page 10, under the heading “Nomenclature and Definitions,” the term “Plywood face” is defined as—

The plywood used for the face of the door.

Under these circumstances, we can hardly attach to the testimony of plaintiffs’ witnesses with respect to the use of the term “doorskins” that degree of weight which would establish that such name was so distinct from that of the material, plywood, that the product known by that name would be for tariff purposes a manufacture of plywood rather than plywood itself.

With respect to thickness, it is apparent that the making of the doorskins in the first instance to the thickness of one-eighth of an inch did not make them any the less plywood. It is a happenstance that plywood of that thickness is particularly adaptable for and possibly almost exclusively used at the present time for the manufacture of flush doors. This is not to say that, because of its thickness, one-eighth of an inch plywood cannot be used for any other purpose for which plywood of that thickness is now or may in the future be adaptable. Its use for any other purpose has not been impaired or destroyed because of its thickness, and, indeed, in plaintiffs’ exhibit 3 in the incorporated record, being a pamphlet issued by the United States Department of Commerce in 1949 containing commercial standards adopted by the trade for hardwood panels, on page 15, under the heading “Standard Sizes and Thicknesses,” it is clearly stated that one-eighth of an inch is a standard thickness for finished hardwood plywood.

Moreover, plaintiffs’ illustrative exhibit 1, in this case, was offered as illustrating the character and construction of doorskins, except for size, it being a section cut from a doorskin.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Cust. Ct. 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckenzie-v-united-states-cusc-1958.