Nylos Trading Co. v. United States

37 C.C.P.A. 71, 1949 CCPA LEXIS 78
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedDecember 12, 1949
DocketNo. 4614
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 37 C.C.P.A. 71 (Nylos Trading Co. 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
Nylos Trading Co. v. United States, 37 C.C.P.A. 71, 1949 CCPA LEXIS 78 (ccpa 1949).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of tbe court:

Tbe Nylos Trading Company bas appealed from tbe judgment of tbe United States Customs Court, First Division (28 U. S. C. 1541, 2601), rendered pursuant to its decision, C. D. 1133 (21 Cust. Ct. 86), sustaining tbe action of tbe Collector of Customs in assessing duty on 63 drums of oil imported from Brazil at tbe rate of 20 per centum ad valorem. Tbe assessment was made under the provisions of paragraph 53 of tbe Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U. S. C. A. 1001, par. 53,1 tbe merchandise being classified by tbe collector as “all other expressed or extracted oils, not specially provided for.” Tbe Trading Company protested (19 U. S. C. A. 1514, 1515) that decision of the collector, Protest 127415-K/1720, claiming that tbe imported merchandise, invoiced as “Pataua oil,” should be entitled to free entry under tbe provisions of paragraph 1732 of tbe tariff act, 19 U. S. C. A. 1201, par. 1732,2 as “Oils, expressed or extracted: * * * palm.”

Tbe trial court held that tbe term used in paragraph 1732 bad not been intended by Congress as a descriptive term, but rather as an ■eo nomine designation for the oil obtained from tbe fruit of tbe palm Elaeis guineensis; that tbe commercial understanding of tbe term “palm oil” included only tbe oil of tbe palm Elaeis guineensis; that tbe commercial understanding and common meaning of tbe term were tbe same; and that tbe oil at bar, having been obtained from tbe fleshy part of tbe fruit of tbe palm Oenocarpus bataua was not within tbe commercial designation or tbe common meaning of tbe term “palm oil.” Tbe oil at bar was held, therefore, to be excluded from tbe classification claimed by tbe importer, and tbe trial court concluded that tbe collector’s classification of tbe merchandise was proper.

Tbe appellant’s assignment of errors supporting bis petition to this court for review of tbe law and facts of tbe case reaches each of tbe trial court’s findings. Tbe importer’s position before us is that tbe provision in paragraph 1732, supra, for “Oils, expressed or extracted: * * * palm” is without limitation, and that under tbe rule of Nootka Packing Co. v. United States, 22 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 464, 470, T. D. 47464, that provision covers “all palm oils.”

Tbe question to be decided is whether tbe term “palm oil” is, as [73]*73the Government in substance contends, a commercial designation which in its trade understanding as well as its common meaning excludes the oil obtained from the fruit of the palm Oenocarpus bataua. A decision of this question will resolve the issue of whether the merchandise at bar is properly classifiable under paragraph 53 or under paragraph 1732 of the cited tariff act.

Tariff laws are to be interpreted according to the common meaning of their terms, or according to their commercial designation where the latter differs from the common meaning. Hummel Chemical Co. v. United States, 29 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 178, 183, C. A. D. 189; Stephen Rug Mills v. United States, 32 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 110, 115, C. A. D. 293. Congress is presumed to know the language of commerce, and the object of the tariff act is to classify substances according to the general usage and denominations of trade. The first and most important thing to be ascertained in construing a tariff act with regard to an article therein mentioned is its commercial designation. A distinction once made by Congress concerning a commodity must be applied in the future in the absence of a contrary legislative intention. American Express Co. v. United States, 10 Ct. Cust. Appls. 275, 286, T. D. 38680; United States v. Davies Co., 11 Ct. Cust. Appls. 392, 395, T. D. 39317. The commercial meaning of tariff terms is presumptively the common meaning. The burden of proof is on the one claiming a different meaning to establish it by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Georgia Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Co., 3 Ct. Cust. Appls. 410, 415, T. D. 32998. A commercial designation is the result of established usage in commerce and trade which is definite, uniform, and general, United States v. Kwong Yuen Shing, 1 Ct. Cust. Appls. 14, T. D. 30773; United States, v. Burlington Venetian Blind Co., 3 Ct. Cust. Appls. 378, T. D. 32967, and where the trade meaning is universal and so well understood that it is presumed Congress and the trade were fully acquainted with the practice when the tariff act was passed. United States v. Fung Chong Co., 34 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 40, 42, C. A. D. 342. Where the Government contends that an eo nomine designation in the tariff law is a commercial or trade term excluding merchandise the subject of a protest, it must prove that as used in commerce the term has a meaning which is general, extending over the entire country; definite, certain of understanding; and uniform, the same everywhere in the country. United States v. Georgia Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Co., supra. Where a particular commodity was for a time the only article appearing in trade which came within the common meaning of the tariff term, the application of the term to that commodity alone was not a peculiar trade usage of the term, but indicated merely that the familiar commodity was then the only subject of importation coming within. [74]*74tbe common meaning of the term. That fact would not exclude other new articles possessing similar characteristics from the classification where the new articles resembled the well known commodity in those particulars which the statute established as criteria of the classification. Klipstein & Co. v. United States, 4 Ct. Cust. Appls. 510, 514, T. D. 33936; United States v. Wilfred Schade & Co., 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 366, 371, T. D. 43092. It is not disputed that tariff statutes are made not alone for the present but the future as well. A statutory term may embrace- subsequent merchandise whose existence was unknown commercially when the tariff act was enacted. United States v. Paul G. Downing el al., 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 556, 560, T. D. 43294; See Wilbur-Ellis Co. et al. v. United States, 18 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 472, 479, T. D. 44762, Chicago Mica Co. et al. v. United States, 21 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 401, 405, T. D. 46927; United States v. L. A. Salomon & Bro., 22 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 490, 495, T. D. 47483. Tariff acts are not drafted in the language of science, and even though imported merchandise would fall within the term of the tariff act if considered as scientific terminology, such a classification would not be proper for customs purposes unless the scientific meaning coincided with the common meaning or commercial designation. And where the Government fails to prove a commercial designation but does establish that the merchandise at bar is not bought or sold under the tariff term, and that an order expressed in that term would not be considered as filled by a delivery of the protested merchandise, the merchandise cannot be held properly classified under the tariff term. Meyer and Lange et al. v. United States, 6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 181, T. D. 35436. Where the scientific meaning of a term differs from the common'meaning, expert testimony as to the scientific meaning has no probative value.

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

Related

Bar Zel Expediters, Inc. v. United States
544 F. Supp. 868 (Court of International Trade, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 C.C.P.A. 71, 1949 CCPA LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nylos-trading-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1949.