Myers v. United States

1 Ct. Cust. 506, 1911 WL 19935, 1911 CCPA LEXIS 90
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals·Decided April 17, 1911·No. No. 454·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

MONTGOMERY, Presiding Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise involved in this case was invoiced as corundum ore concentrates. It is in fact a product of corundum, crushed and ground to different degrees of fineness, and divided into grades more or less uniform in* size. It was assessed for duty at the rate of 1 cent per pound as having a similitude to emery, ground, provided for by paragraph 419 of the tariff act of 1897, the pertinent provision of which reads as follows:

Emery grains, and emery manufactured, ground, pulverized, or refined, one cent per pound. * * *

The importer claims first that the merchandise- was subject to free entry under paragraph 671 and alternatively under paragraph 614 of the tariff act of 1897. The two paragraphs read as follows:

671. Stone and sand: Burrstone in blocks, rough or unmanufactured; cliff stone, unmanufactured; rotten stone, tripoli, and sand, crude or manufactured, not otherwise provided for in this act.
614. Minerals, crude, or not advanced in value or condition by refining or grinding, or by other process of manufacture, not specially provided for in this act.

The first question presented is whether the article is sand within the meaning of paragraph 671. It is certainly not crude sand, as will [507] be seen by the description of the process of manufacture. Is it manufactured sand within the meaning of section 671 ?

The material occurs in nature in the form of a rock which is quarried out of the earth and is found, according to the testimony of the importer's witnesses, in various lrinds of rocks, and the process of manufacture is described by the witness as follows:

After this rock is taken from the quarry we take it to the mill and it is crushed with a large-jawed crusher. It is crushed until we crush it fine enough to pass through the various sieves or meshes of the sieve as shown in Exhibit 1. * * *

He also testified that water is used to wash away the impurities, and it is then graded according to its size, placed in bags, and shipped.

The testimony shows that the rock from which this material is made is sometimes called “ore,” and would seem from the testimony, to be of little value when lying in the earth. The finished product represented by the present importation is worth 5 cents per pound or $100 a ton in Canada where made. It will be noted that the word “sand” is used in the same paragraph with “burrstone,” “cliff stone,” “rotten stone,” and “tripoli,” all of which are cheap materials and mainly composed of siliceous rock.

There are many definitions of the word “sand” which would cover the importation in question. But it often is given a more restricted meaning, as for instance, in Webster’s Dictionary, sand is defined as—

Fine particles of stone, especially of siliceous stone, but not reduced to powder or dust; comminuted stone in the form of loose grains, which are not coherent when wet.

In the New English Dictionary, “sand” is defined as — •

A material consisting of comminuted fragments and water-worn particles of rocks (mainly siliceous) finer than those of which gravel is composed.

As before stated, it is perfectly clear that this is not crude sand. Nor do we think it can be considered manufactured sand within the meaning of tins paragraph. Undoubtedly sandstone, ground or crushed so as to separate the particles into loose grains, might be called manufactured sand. But something more than this is done to this material'. It is not only crushed, but a process of separation of the various ingredients which go to make up the material of which it was originally composed occurs. By the testimony of witnesses as to conditions in the North Carolina mines, only one part in ten of the original material is recovered as corundum. This is not so much a process of manufacture of sand as of extraction of a material from a crude mass, and partakes more of the character of recovering a mineral than manufacturing sand within the ordinary meaning of that term.

The Circuit Court of Appeals had the identical question before it in which the same importer was a party, and the decision is reported in [508] the case of Myers v. United States (163 Fed. Rep., 53). It was said by tbe court:

Definitions of tbe word “sand” may be found sufficiently broad to include any mineral when reduced to fine particles. Other definitions limit the term to fine particles of stone, and in ordinary use it is confined to fine particles of siliceous stone, common sand consisting almost entirely of silica. The decision of this case, however, does not require us to accurately define the word “sand.” We are rather called upon to say what it does not include, as used in the tariff act, than what it does include. Obviously the word as so employed does not include gold dust or any of the precious metals when reduced to fine particles. Almost equally clear is it that the baser metals — e. g., iron or zinc — when ground would not commercially be called sand; and we think it also follows that the term is inapplicable to any metalliferous mineral, although it be in comminuted fragments.

We fully agree with tbe conclusion of the Circuit Court of Appeals in tbe case cited, and bold that this importation is not sand, either crude or manufactured, within the meaning of the paragraph in question.

It remains to be determined whether it is to be considered as “minerals, crude, or not advanced in value or condition by refining or grinding, or by other process of manufacture."

It is to be noted that this material is advanced from what is described by the importer’s witness as conglomerate ore to a finished product worth 5 cents per pound. It is crushed and washed. It is in fact a finished product for the uses to which it is adapted, and we think it comes within the case of United States v. Graser-Rothe (164 Fed. Rep., 205), where this same section of the statute was construed, and it was held that the process of crushing waste marble and fitting it for use and giving it the name of granito or terrazzo constituted a manufacture, and that it was no longer crude mineral. The same question was presented to this court in Rossman v. United States (T. D. 31321), in which case we followed the holding in United States v. Graser-Rothe, supra, and held granito to be advanced in value by crushing, and it was there said:

' In the case at bar the importation has been substantially increased in value. It has been subjected to labor and mechanical treatment which has largely contributed to its increased value. It has taken a new and distinctive name which does not appear to be related to the original product and is devoted to a use to which it seems waste marble has not formerly been applied. The statute applicable seems to imply that grinding or refining are within its meaning deemed to be a process of manufacture; otherwise no force can be given to the word “other” in the paragraph.

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

Myers v. United States, 1 Ct. Cust. 506, 1911 WL 19935, 1911 CCPA LEXIS 90 (ccpa 1911).

1 Ct. Cust. 506 (Myers v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

National Lead Co. v. United States
51 Cust. Ct. 13 (U.S. Customs Court, 1963)
Tower v. United States
26 Cust. Ct. 48 (U.S. Customs Court, 1951)
Protest 59116-K of J. T. Steeb & Co.
16 Cust. Ct. 205 (U.S. Customs Court, 1946)
United States Rubber Co. v. United States
10 Cust. Ct. 342 (U.S. Customs Court, 1943)
Cronin v. United States
4 Cust. Ct. 86 (U.S. Customs Court, 1940)
L. Oppleman, Inc. v. United States
1 Cust. Ct. 159 (U.S. Customs Court, 1938)
Stone v. United States
7 Ct. Cust. 173 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1916)
Hampton v. United States
6 Ct. Cust. 392 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1915)
Stengel v. United States
2 Ct. Cust. 137 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)