Protest 978865-G of T. M. Duche & Sons, Inc.

8 Cust. Ct. 496
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedApril 16, 1942
DocketNo. 47096
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 Cust. Ct. 496 (Protest 978865-G of T. M. Duche & Sons, Inc.) 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
Protest 978865-G of T. M. Duche & Sons, Inc., 8 Cust. Ct. 496 (cusc 1942).

Opinion

Keefe, Judge:

This action involves certain merchandise invoiced as “Blan-dola, a vegetable gelatone or gum,” upon which duty was assessed at 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1558 of the act of 1930 as a nonenumerated manufactured article. The plaintiff claims that the merchandise is dutiable at 10 percent ad valorem under paragraph 1558 as raw or unmanufactured, or free of duty under paragraph 1722 as seaweed, crude or unmanufactured, or, if dutiable, it is dutiable at 10 percent ad valorem under paragraph 1540 as seaweeds, manufactured. ;

At the trial of this case certain reports of the Government chemist were offered and admitted in evidence without objection and the case was submitted upon the papers in the case.

The reports in evidence contain the following statements:

The sample is an extract of seaweed covered by T. D. 43065.
The sample is not sodium alginate but an extract of seaweed covered by T. D. 43065.

The decision referred to in the chemist’s reports, Stone & Downer Co. v. United States, T. D. 43065, involved merchandise described as “Norgin extra seaweed [497]*497product” and was reported by the appraiser as consisting of a preparation made by dissolving seaweed in an alkaline solution and evaporating the same. It was there claimed that the merchandise was free of duty as seaweed, crude or un-manufactured. The case there was submitted on the record including the sample, without the introduction of any evidence. Upon examination of the sample, the court found it to be in the form of small uneven flakes, hard and brittle, having much the same appearance as broken cinnamon, and that when placed in water it dissolved into a sticky, shapeless mass, giving the water the appearance and consistency of mucilage. The court was of the opinion that if unmanufactured and nothing more than seaweed the merchandise would have unfolded into the shape of the plant when in its natural state, and therefore found that it was advanced in condition beyond its crude state and not in an unmanufactured condition and held it properly dutiable as assessed by the collector.

The plaintiff here claims that the merchandise in question is more than crude or unmanufactured seaweed and has undergone manufacturing processes from which it has emerged as a totally different article from seaweed in its natural state, having attained the class of products eo nomine provided for as seaweeds, manufactured.

The Government contends that the merchandise in question has undergone a manufacturing process which gives it a name, character, and use different from seaweed, either crude or manufactured, thereby precluding its classification in either of the provisions for seaweed in its respective forms; and that the classification of the collector brings the merchandise within the class of a manufactured article which is not otherwise provided for than in the nonenumerated manufactured article .paragraph and that the evidence presented by the plaintiff fails to overcome the presumption of correctness of the collector’s finding.

The question before us is whether or not certain merchandise established to be an extract of seaweed is classifiable under the eo nomine provision as “seaweeds, if manufactured or dyed,” rather than a manufacture of seaweed not more specifically provided for than under the catch-all provision for nonenumerated manufactured articles.

Although the decisions of the courts are not uniform in respect to the issue now before us, there appears a general principle evolved therefrom establishing that before an article may be regarded as the manufacture of a material it must have been so far processed from its original condition as to have acquired new characteristics and become a new article with a new name and new use.

In the case of Barham v. United States, 11 Ct. Cust. Appls. 536, T. D. 39679, certain cords and braids made of the split stems of the three-cornered rush or sedge were imported to be used in the manufacture of so-called sea-grass furniture. The merchandise was classified as a manufacture of vegetable fiber. The importers claimed it properly classifiable as a sea grass manufactured, or as a manufacture of grass, or as an unenumerated manufactured article. The court found that the merchandise was not composed of fiber, and in respect to its proper classification stated as follows:

We do not think the merchandise is classifiable under paragraph 372 [Act of 1913] as sea grass manufactured, and are of opinion that it finds proper classification under paragraph 368 as a manufacture of grass. * * *
The question of whether or not an article is manufactured of a given material or whether it is a manufacture of the same material is one that has given the courts much trouble, and it is unnecessary to enter into any exhaustive discussion of the authorities.
* % * * * * *
* * * while the sea grass in this case has been manufactured, the manufacturing processes applied thereto have elevated it to the condition of a manufacture of sea grass or grass. Nothing more remains to he done, as far as the record shows, [498]*498to these cords and braids to constitute them, a finished material ready for the manufacture of furniture. [Italics not quoted.]

In the case of Betz v. United States, 26 C. C. P. A. 399, C. A. D. 46, the merchandise, certain “Norgine F,” was classified as a chemical compound. The importer claimed it to be seaweed, crude or unmanufactured, and free of duty, or, if dutiable, it was dutiable as seaweed, manufactured, or as a nonenumerated unmanufactured or manufactured article. The court found from the evidence that “Norgine F” was derived from a natural seaweed, which after drying and cleaning was washed in water to which 2 percent of sulphuric acid and 2 percent of muriatic acid were added, the acid thereafter being neutralized with sodium carbonate, and the ma^ terial then dried and cut into small pieces; and that during such process the physical and chemical identity of the seaweed was lost and the resulting product was an impure sodium alginate, a chemical compound, which was not shown to exist in the original seaweed. The court holding that the product was a chemical compound, stated:

the imported “Norgine F” is neither seaweed in a crude state nor should it be regarded as “seaweeds * * * manufactured,” for tariff purposes. To be either it is essential that it still be seaweed. * * * We think if the material at bar was not enumerated in the tariff act, it would properly fall within the non-enumerated manufactured provision of paragraph 1558 not as a manufactured seaweed, although it has been maufactured from seaweed, but as a manufactured article regardless of from what it was manufactured. * * * While the term “seaweeds * * * manufactured” was not the exact term there under consideration by the Supreme Court, the reasoning of that case [Meyer et al. v. Arthur, 91 U. S. 570], we think is apt in deciding the issue at bar. The court said:
“When the act speaks of ‘manufactures of metals,’ it obviously refers to manufactured articles in which metals form a component part.

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Related

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12 Cust. Ct. 70 (U.S. Customs Court, 1944)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Cust. Ct. 496, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/protest-978865-g-of-t-m-duche-sons-inc-cusc-1942.