P. Beiersdorf & Co. v. United States

10 Cust. Ct. 37, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 697
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJanuary 9, 1943
DocketC. D. 718
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Cust. Ct. 37 (P. Beiersdorf & Co. 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
P. Beiersdorf & Co. v. United States, 10 Cust. Ct. 37, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 697 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Cole, Judge:

The merchandise involved herein is described on the invoice as “Woolfat Acid.” It was exported from Hamburg, Germany, on April 14, 1938, and was entered at the port of NewYork on April 25, 1938. • It was assessed with duty at 25 per centum ad valorem plus 3 cents per pound. The ad valorem rate was assessed under the provisions of paragraph 37 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which, so far as pertinent for the purposes of this case, reads as follows:

* * * esters of all kinds not specially provided for, 25 per centum ad valorem: Provided, That no' article containing more than 10 per centum of alcohol shall be classified for duty under this paragraph.

The assessment of 3 cents per pound was applied pursuant to the provisions of section 701 (8) of the Revenue Act of 1936. So far as material, that statute provides:

* * * inedible animal fats, inedible animal greases, fatty acids derived from any of the foregoing, and salts of any of the foregoing; all the foregoing, •whether or not refined, sulphonated, sulphated, hydrogenated, or otherwise processed, 3 cents per pound; * * *.

The plaintiff claims that the merchandise at bar-is not of a class subject to the provisions of section 701 (8) of the Revenue Act of 1936, supra, and further that the instant merchandise is either free of duty as a wax, not specially provided for, under paragraph 1796 of the Tariff Act of 1930, or dutiable at 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1536 of that act as a manufacture of wax, not specially provided for. The paragraphs of the tariff act relied upon are:

Par. 1796. Wax: Animal, vegetable, or mineral, not specially provided for.
Par. 1536. Candles, 27J4 per centum ad valorem; manufactures of amber, bladders, or wax, or of which these substances or any of them is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for, 20 per centum ad valorem.-

The primary question presented is whether the commodity in question is a wax for tariff purposes.

The record before us consists of a sample of the product under consideration, exhibit 1, and the oral testimony of three witnesses, all well qualified analytical chemists.

The witnesses agreed in their testimony concerning all of the salient factors regarding the method of production and the composition of the merchandise, in question. It is shown beyond doubt that the product is derived from a wool grease known as lanolin which is an inedible animal grease; that lanolin or wool grease is distilled or saponi-fied with alkali under pressure to obtain wool grease fatty acids; that whether distillation or saponification is followed is immaterial for the resulting product is substantially the same, the only difference being the content of unsaponifiabl'e matter; that the fatty acids thus obtained are heated together with glycerin, and after esterification the [?]*?substance is cooled, the glycerin skimmed off, and it is tben purified by boiling- with charcoal in solution; and that after purification, the solution is evaporated leaving the imported merchandise, which is the glyceryl ester of wool-fat acids.

The results of analyses of the imported merchandise as made by the plaintiff and the defendant are as follows:

Plaintiff . Defendant
Melting Point__ 58°-59° C_58°
Specific Gravity_ .969_No determination
Acid Value_3-3.9_ 3.9
Ester Value_ 121-124_ 124
Saponification Value_ 124-127.9_127.9
Iodine Value__ 16.3-18.8_ 18.8
Unsaponifiable Matter_2.1 percent_22.1 percent

It is disclosed thereby that except for the percentage of unsaponifiable matter contained therein, the findings of each analyst are substantially the same. Defendant’s witness testified that he followed the Holde method in obtaining the percentage of unsaponifiable matter shown in the above tabulation, and that in applying a different and rather unsatisfactory method', he. obtained a result of 30 per centum content of unsaponifiable matter.

However, the percentage of unsaponifiable matter in the merchandise at bar is not decisive of the question whether or not it is a wax.

Based .on the analyses hereinabove set forth, it is the contention of the plaintiff that the merchandise at bar is a wax because of the close approximation of the values of properties thereof to the same properties in beeswax. As illustrative, counsel for the plaintiff, in his able brief, has given a comparison of the average characteristics of beeswax and those of exhibit 1, as follows:

Beeswax Mdse at bar (exhibit 1)
Melting Point_ 62°-65° C_ 58°-59°
Specific Gravity_• 0.962-0.966_0.969
Acid Value_. _ 17-22__3-3.9
Ester Value_ 70-82__- 121-124
Saponification Value 90-103_ 124-127.9
Iodine Value_ 6-13_ 16.3-18.8

Because the above average characteristics of the two commodities referred to are within close range of each other, the plaintiff claims that therefore the imported merchandise in question is to be considered a wax. Plaintiff’s two witnesses stated that the product under consideration is a wax because of the high molecular content of the fatty acids, one testifying that the instant merchandise has the general appearance of beeswax, although slightly more tacky, and that it is not inedible animal grease because its melting point is too high and its physical appearance does not simulate inedible animal grease, the [40]*40.latter being softer; while the other stated that this merchandise is a wax made from animal grease, and therefore is an animal wax or manufactured animal wax.

The defendant contends that the merchandise at bar is not a wax because it has a more greasy and unctuous consistency than wax, that its composition is different, and, in addition, it is a glyceride. Witness for the Government regards the difference in the melting point between this product and beeswax as “quite a difference,” and is of the opinion that this merchandise more closely resembled an animal fat, a synthetic animal fat. He never heard of an animal wax being a glyceride.

In the case of Lutz v. Magone, 153 U. S. 105, it was held that, in interpreting tariff laws, “words are to be taken in their commonly received and popular sense, or according to their commercial designation, if that differs from the ordinary understanding of the word.” It is also well established that tariff laws are not written in terms of science, but in the language of commerce, which is presumptively that in common use. Meyer & Lange et al. v. United States, 6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 181, T. D. 35436; United States v. Merck & Co., 8 Ct. Cust. Appls. 171, T. D. 37288. The foregoing principles of tariff construction were upheld recently in Hummel Chemical Co. v. United States, 29 C. C. P. A. 178; C. A. D.

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Related

Lutz v. Magone
153 U.S. 105 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Meyer v. United States
6 Ct. Cust. 181 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1915)
United States v. Merck & Co.
8 Ct. Cust. 171 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
10 Cust. Ct. 37, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-beiersdorf-co-v-united-states-cusc-1943.