Meyer v. Cadwalader

49 F. 19, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1644
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 18, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 49 F. 19 (Meyer v. Cadwalader) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meyer v. Cadwalader, 49 F. 19, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1644 (circtedpa 1891).

Opinion

Achieson, Circuit Judge,

(charging jury.) This is an action by Moyer & Dickinson, importers, against the collector of the port of Philadelphia, (the United States being the real defendant,) to recover an alleged excess of duties paid under protest on goods entered at the custom-house on February 18, March 2(5, and April 16, 1884. The goods which were the subject of the duty were chinas and marcelines, the latter being made wholly of silk, and the former of silk and cotton, silk being the component material of chief value. The custom-house officers assessed upon the goods a duty of 50 per centum ael valorem under th'e last clause of Schedule L of the tariff act of March 8, 1888, (22 St. 510,) which reads:

[20]*20“All goods, wares, and merchandise not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, made of silk, or of which silk is the component material of chief value, fifty per centum ad valorem.”

The plaintiffs claim that the goods were liable only to 20 per centum ad valorem duty under the clause in Schedule N'of the act which reads thus:

“Hats, and so forth, materials for: Braids, plaits, flats, laces, trimmings, tisgues, willow sheets and squares, used for making or ornamenting hats, .bonnets, and hoods, composed of straw, chip, grass, palm-leaf, willow, hair, whalebone, or any other substance or material not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, twenty per centum ad valorem.”

The act of 1883 does not, in Schedule L or elsewhere, impose any duty trpon chinas or marcelines by those names. The plaintiffs claim that the chinas and marcelines, the subject of this dispute, come under the clause just read, which begins with the words, “Hats, and so forth, materials for,” as being trimmings chiefly used for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods, and hence dutiable at 20 per centum ad valorem only. Whether these goods come under that clause, and -are dutiable at 20 per centum instead of 50 per centum, as the custom-house officers held, is the question in this case.

The solution of the question involves two inquiries: First. Are these chinas and marcelines trimmings? Secondly. Are they chiefly or principally used for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods? If an affirmative answer is given to both of these inquiries your verdict should be for the plaintiffs; but if a negative answer is given to either of them the defendant would be entitled to your verdict.

There is much testimony in the case tending to show that at the date of the passage of the tariff act of 1883 there was, and for a long time prior thereto had been, a well-recognized general class of articles, easily distinguishable by those in the trade, known under the denomination of “trimmings,” the principal use of which was for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods, and having their chief commercial value from that use. Many witnesses have testified that this general class styled “trimmings” embraces a great variety of articles, composed of different substances or materials, each of which articles has its own specific or particular name. Furthermore, there is evidence tending to show that these various articles thus constituting the general class of ■“trimmings” were and are imported into this country in different forms; for example, some by the gross, some cut in divers ways, and some1 by the piece. This designation, “trimmings,” is found-in the particular clause of the tariff act of 1883, under which the present controversy has arisen. The introductory words of that clause are these, “Hats, and so forth, materials for;” or, transposing the words, “Materials for hats, and so forth.” The general subject-matter, then, of the clause, is “materials for hats, bonnets, and hoods.” Immediately following the introductory words just quoted, the act specially names “braids, plaits, flats, laces, trimmings, tissues, willow sheets and squares.” Then comes the declared use to be made of those eight articles, namely, “used for- making [21]*21or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods.” So far as the question involved in the present case is concerned, the clause is to be road as if it stood thus:

“Trimmings used for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods, and composed of straw, chip, grass, palm-leaf, willow, hair, whalebone, or any other substance or malcría!, and not specially enumerated or provided for in this act. ”

Undoubtedly, then, this clause of the act embraces the entire class of trimmings shown to exist, of whatsoever substance or material composed, the chief use of which is for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods, and not specially enumerated or provided for in the act. This was the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the two cases to which counsel have referred,- — Hartranft v. Langfeld, 1.25 U. S. 125. 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 732; Robertson v. .Edelhoff, 132 U, S. 614, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 186.

I have already called your attention to the fact that chinas and marcolines are not specially made dutiable by those names by the tariff act of 1883. Are these articles trimmings, within the meaning of the clause relating to “Hats, and so forth, materials for,” and dutiable» at the rato of 20 per centum? The evidence tends to show that chinas and marcelines were used at the time of the passage of the tariff act of 1883, and long had been used, for lining hats, bonnets, and hoods; that they were and are particularly adapted to that use, and had and have their chief commercial value therefrom. The plaintiffs’ witnesses have testified that these articles have always belonged to and constituted a pari of the general class of hat trimmings, and have been used and chiefly used to trim and finish hats, bonnets, and hoods, and make the same merchantable commodities. The defendants’ witnesses have teslified that chinas and marcelines do not belong, and never did belong, to the class of trimmings for hats, bonnets, and hoods. In this matter these witnesses make a distinction between the outside and the inside of a hat, bonnet, or hood. According to their conception and expressed views, only the outside decorations or adornments of a hat, bonnet, or hood are embraced in the designation “trimmings.” They give to the term, you perceive, the most narrow signification it will bear. Undoubtedly the word “trimmings,” as used in the clause relating to “Hats, and so forth, materials for,” includes ornamental appendages. But does it include nothing more? This you will determine upon consideration of the whole evidence, and having regard, also, to the terms of the particular clause of the tariff act with which we are now dealing. The language of that clause, as it relates to trimmings, you will remember, is: “Hats, and so forth, materials for, * * * trimmings, * * * used for making or ornamenting hats, bonnets, and hoods.” The use is not confined to ornamentation, but, by the express words of the clause, is “for making” as well as “ornamenting.” Either use-is within the language of the act.

The defendants’ witnesses also make a distinction between trimmings and linings, and they state that the latter are not included in the desig[22]*22nation or class of trimmings. But the mere fact that chinas and marcelines are called “linings” does not necessarily exclude them from the class of “trimmings.” Mere names are not, of themselves, controlling.

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49 F. 19, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meyer-v-cadwalader-circtedpa-1891.