P. L. Thomas Paper Co. v. United States

49 Cust. Ct. 276, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 950
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1962
DocketNo. 67151; protest 60/22863 (B) (New York)
StatusPublished

This text of 49 Cust. Ct. 276 (P. L. Thomas Paper 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. L. Thomas Paper Co. v. United States, 49 Cust. Ct. 276, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 950 (cusc 1962).

Opinion

Rao, Judge:

The collector of customs at the port of New York levied duty upon an importation invoiced as “M.G. Pure Marbleized Kraft Paper,” at the rate of 2% cents per pound, plus 10 per centum ad valorem. His action wag [277]*277predicated upon the provision in paragraph 1405 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 86 Treas. Dec. 121, T.D. 52739, for—

* * * uncoated papers, including wrapping paper, with the surface or surfaces wholly or partly covered with a design, fancy effect, pattern, or character (except designs, fancy effects, patterns, or characters produced on a paper machine without attachments * * *).

Plaintiff' has duly protested this assessment, contending that said merchandise is properly dutiable at the rate of 8% per centum ad valorem within the provision for sulphate wrapping paper, not specially provided for, in paragraph 1409 of said act, as modified by the Sixth Protocol of Supplementary Concessions to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 91 Treas. Dec. 150, T.D. 54108.

The parties have stipulated that the paper in issue is a sulphate wrapping paper, and it is not disputed that the surface or surfaces thereof are wholly or partly covered with a design, fancy effect, pattern, or character. Accordingly, and in view of the language of paragraph 1405, as modified, supra, the only question in this case is how such fancy effect was produced. If it was made on a paper machine, without attachments, by express exception, the instant paper is excluded from the scope of paragraph 1405, and the claim for classification as sulphate wrapping paper, not specially provided for, must be sustained. If, however, the paper machine was equipped with attachments, paragraph 1405 is applicable.

The collector has invoked said paragraph 1405, and, under, settled law, it must be presumed that his classification was correct and that he found the existence of every fact necessary to support his classification. United States v. M. & D. Miller, Inc., 41 C.C.P.A. (Customs) 226, C.A.D. 556; E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. United States, 27 C.C.P.A. (Customs) 146, C.A.D. 75. It was, therefore, incumbent upon plaintiff to establish that the collector erred in his classification. United States v. Gardel Industries, 33 C.C.P.A. (Customs) 118, C.A.D. 325.

The essential fact which the collector has here found, and which plaintiff disputes, is that the paper machine upon which the imported paper was made contained an attachment for the production of the design or fancy effect on the surface of the paper. It is to this proposition that the evidence of record has been addressed.

Testimony as to the method of production of the imported paper was given by the production manager of the Swedish manufacturer, pursuant to commission duly issued from this court. As an engineer and chemist, associated with the manufacturing company for some 12 years, this witness was familiar with the production process of this type and quality of paper, although not actually present at the mill at the time it was manufactured. His testimony shows that it was made on a paper machine which is known as an inverted type of Yankee machine. It is equipped with both a primary and a secondary headbox and a special beater. When marbleized paper is made, special pulp, produced in the special beater, is placed .in the secondary headbox, which is located over the wire above the section boxes. From there, it flows down on the wet web of pulp issuing from the primary headbox.

The witness stated that the secondary headbox is necessary for the production of marbleized paper of this quality or type. While he did not know whether the secondary headbox was a part of the machine, as originally built, or was subsequently installed, he was clear that marbleized paper could not be made without the secondary headbox and that an ordinary Yankee machine is not regularly equipped with a secondary headbox.

[278]*278In further explanation of the manufacturing process, the witness stated that the design is produced before the pulp is formed into paper. It “is made on the paper machine on wet web. On this wet web we put on pulp for the marbleizing effect, but we do not put it on ready paper. It is wet web.” “The primary head-box produces the wet web and through the secondary head-box we put on this pulp for a marbleized effect on the wet web.” It is done before the wet web leaves the wire to be dried, and before watermarks or so-called laid marks are produced.

No evidence has been introduced bearing upon the matter of what constitutes an attachment to a paper machine for the purpose of producing a fancy effect on paper, within the intendment of paragraph 1405, as modified, supra. Counsel for plaintiff adverts to the tariff history of this provision and to the cases of Dunn v. United States, 2 Ct. Cust. Appls. 65, T.D. 31627, and Kupfer Bros. Co. v. United States, 52 Treas. Dec. 106, T.D. 42348, in support of the contention that designs produced by the admixture of pulp with no other machinery than an additional headbox are not designs produced on a paper machine with attachments within the meaning of the language here under consideration.

It appears that surface-decorated papers were first eo nomine provided for in paragraph 411 of the Tariff Act of 1909, wherein the language read:

* * * papers, including wrapping paper, with the surface decorated or covered with a design, fancy effect, pattern or character, whether produced in the pulp or otherwise, but not by lithographic process, * * *. [Italics supplied.]

This phraseology-was the subject of judicial consideration in the case of Dunn v. United States, supra, in connection with an importation of striped or plaid wrapping paper, the design of which had been imparted by the use, in manufacture, of a felt blanket of distinctive weave. Classification within paragraph 411 was sought to be avoided, on the theory that the words “whether produced in the pulp or otherwise” contemplated “a separate, distinct, and secondary process, and not something that is merely incidental to the process of manufacture.” The court held otherwise, stating:

Pulp is the raw material from which the paper in this case is made, and the decorated effect produced upon its surface is the result of intentionally using in the manufacture of the paper a particular kind of felt or felt blanket which is designed to and does produce such effect.
The impression which the pulp receives from the felt, and which results in the decorated effect, is clearly comprehended in the words “whether produced in the pulp or otherwise,” because this manifestly includes all the processes to which the final product, the finished paper, has been subjected before reaching its finished condition.

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Related

Dunn v. United States
2 Ct. Cust. 65 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)

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Bluebook (online)
49 Cust. Ct. 276, 1962 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-l-thomas-paper-co-v-united-states-cusc-1962.