R. H. MacY & Co., Inc. v. The United States

428 F.2d 856, 57 C.C.P.A. 115, 1970 CCPA LEXIS 337
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 25, 1970
DocketCustoms Appeal 5350
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 428 F.2d 856 (R. H. MacY & Co., Inc. v. The 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
R. H. MacY & Co., Inc. v. The United States, 428 F.2d 856, 57 C.C.P.A. 115, 1970 CCPA LEXIS 337 (ccpa 1970).

Opinion

LANE, Judge.

The importer appeals from the decision and judgment of the Customs Court, 62 Cust.Ct. 219, 297 F.Supp. 171, C.D. 3733 (1969), overruling its protest against the classification of imported merchandise. We affirm.

The merchandise is described as embroidered curtains in chief value of acetate fabric and hand-painted panels in chief value of polyester fabric. The curtains were classified under item 365.85 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS) and assessed with duty at 42% percentum ad valorem. The panels were classified under TSUS item 367.60 and dutied at 250 per pound plus 30 per centum ad valorem. These statutory provisions read as follows:

Schedule 3. — Textile Fibers and Textile Products

********

Part 5. — Textile Furnishings.

* * * * * ' * * *

Subpart C. — Tapestries, Linens, and Other Furnishings

***** -X- * *

Lace or net furnishings, whether or not ornamented, and other furnishings, ornamented:

Handmade-lace furnishings:

* * ******

Other furnishings, ornamented:

Of cotton ... * * *

365.85 Other ................................... 42.5% ad. val.

Other furnishings, not ornamented:

Of man-made fibers:

* * *

* * * Knit (* **)... * * *

* * * * * * * ■ *

Other:

* * Of glass ... * * *

367.60

Other ............................ 250 per lb.

+30% ad val.

Headnote 1 to schedule 3 provides that the schedule does not cover footwear, headwear, gloves, handbags, pillows, mattresses, and other articles of textile materials provided for in schedule 7. Headnote 2 to schedule 3 provides that the term “textile materials” includes, among other things, man-made fibers and articles produced therefrom.

*858 Appellant contends that both the curtains and the panels should have been classified under TSUS item 772.35. The provision is as follows:

Schedule 7. — Specified Products;

Miscellaneous and Nonenumerated Products

* -x- * * * * -x- *

* * * * * * -x-

Part 12. — Rubber and Plastics Products

Subpart C. — Specified Rubber and Plastics Products

* * * * -» * * *

772.35 Curtains and drapes, including panels and valances; napkins, table covers, mats, scarves, runners, doilies, centerpieces, antimacassars, and furniture slipcovers; and like furnishings ; all the foregoing of rubber or plastics .. 12.5% ad val.

Headnote 1 to part 12 provides that the term “plastics” includes, among other things, synthetic plastics materials as defined in certain parts of schedule 4. The parties stipulated below that cellulose acetate and polyester are, in their basic crude forms and not further processed, plastics materials meeting those definitions.

The Customs Court held that curtains and drapes of woven plastic material, as here involved, were correctly classified under the textile schedule (schedule 3), and were not removed from that schedule by headnote 1 thereto, which, as mentioned above, states that schedule 3 does not cover “articles of textile materials provided for in schedule 7.” The court viewed the schedule 7, part 12, provision contended for by appellant as covering only curtains and drapes in nonwoven form, such as in sheet form. This view was deduced from various indicia of Congressional intent, including the Explanatory Notes contained in the Tariff Classification Study, Schedule 7, Part 12, which state, at page 435:

The basic, statutory provisions under which plastics and rubber articles are classified for tariff purposes remained virtually unchanged since their enactment in 1930. Yet, these provisions became obsolete, confused, and of uncertain application within a few short years after their enactment. The preparation of new tariff provisions for plastics and rubber products involved the resolutions of a number of basic problems relating to-—
(1) the establishment of clear and meaningful distinctions between—
(a) the basic plastics and rubber materials to be provided for in the proposed chemical schedule and the articles produced from these materials to be provided for elsewhere, and
(b) the man-made fibers and products thereof to be provided for in the proposed textile provisions and the other articles of rubber or plastics; and
(2) establishment of rate descriptions for specific classes of goods and for assignment thereto of rates of duty which are substantially equivalent to those presently applicable.

The court below concluded from this passage that there was a distinction to be drawn between products of man-made fibers, which were to be classified under the textile schedule even if the fibers were of rubber or plastic, and “other articles of rubber or plastics,” which *859 would be classified under part 12 of schedule 7. The court concluded:

We are inclined to the view that the term “plastic” as employed in part 12 of schedule 7 describes a form as well as a substance, and does not cover plastic materials which have been converted into textile materials.
A yarn which was produced from a basic plastic substance has by that process of manufacture taken on the status of a textile material from which a textile product will be produced, and ■ for tariff purposes may no longer be considered a “plastic” but rather a man-made fiber.

Appellant contends that the statutory definition of “rubber or plastics” as set forth in the Tariff Schedules of the United States was binding on the Customs Court, and that the court’s resort to extrinsic aids to determine Congressional intent was unnecessary and illegal. It is of course true that the statutory definition is binding, but we do not find that the Customs Court departed from that definition. As mentioned above, headnote 1 to part 12 of schedule 7 states that the term “plastics” refers to “synthetic plastics materials” as defined in schedule 4. The definition in this headnote is silent as to form, and it is not at all clear that Congress intended to cover all forms, including the fiber and yarn forms from which the merchandise here involved was made. In fact, headnote 3 to schedule 4, part 1, subpart C, and headnote 2 to schedule 4, part 4, subpart A, lead us to the conclusion that not all forms of plastics were to be covered by part 12 of schedule 7. Those headnotes respectively provide:

The plastic materials may be in solid, semi-solid, or liquid condition, such as flakes, powders, pellets, granules, solutions, emulsions, and other basic forms not further processed. (Emphasis added.)

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Bluebook (online)
428 F.2d 856, 57 C.C.P.A. 115, 1970 CCPA LEXIS 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/r-h-macy-co-inc-v-the-united-states-ccpa-1970.