Redden v. United States

19 C.C.P.A. 401, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 24
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 7, 1932
DocketNo. 3480
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 C.C.P.A. 401 (Redden 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
Redden v. United States, 19 C.C.P.A. 401, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 24 (ccpa 1932).

Opinion

Garrett, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise involved in this suit consists of tubular-shaped burners composed of transparent fused quartz made from rock crystal. No sample was filed, but a rough sketch or drawing made by the witness Robinson while testifying appears in the record as an exhibit. This sketch taken with the testimony indicates that each burner consists of a straight tube having two crosspieces, also tubular, on each end. These tubular crosspieces are designed to hold mercury-film phosphorous salts, which are placed therein after importation. As these salts are warmed a mercury vapor is produced, the air is removed from the tube to form a vacuum, and fittings are put on the tubes for mounting them.

In use an electric current is passed through the tube. This causes the mercury salts to vaporize, become incandescent and give off a very bright fight. The articles are used chiefly by physicians for irradiating the body with ultra rays, which rays produce artificial “sunburn.” Their only use appears to be for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes.

The collector of customs classified the merchandise under paragraph 214 of the Tariff Act of 1922, assessing duty at 30 per centum ad valorem. Said paragraph reads—

Par. 214. Earthy or mineral substances wholly or partly manufactured and articles, wares, and materials (crude or advanced in condition), composed wholly or in chief value of earthy or mineral substances, not specially provided for, whether susceptible of decoration or not, if not decorated in any manner, 30 per centum ad valorem; if decorated, 40 per centum ad valorem.

Appellants protested, claiming the merchandise to be properly classifiable under paragraph 229 of said act, which reads—

Par. 229. Incandescent electric-light bulbs and lamps, with or without filaments, 20 per centum ad valorem.

Upon the hearing the Customs Court overruled the protest and the instant appeal was taken.

In B. B. T. Corp. of America v. United States, 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 144, 147, T. D. 42780, this court, after quoting from dictionaries the definition of “incandescent,” “electric fight,” and “electric lamp,” in effect, limited the meaning of “electric lamp,” for tariff purposes under said paragraph 229, to the bulb and whatever parts the bulb alone might contain.

It was there said—

* * * the bulb, together with the other parts, which, the statute states, may be a “filament” or not, constitute a lamp.

[403]*403In other words, under the rule there laid down, incandescent electric-light bulbs and incandescent electric-light lamps are, for tariff purposes, both classifiable under said paragraph.

It seems to have been the view of the court below that said paragraph 229 was intended to provide only for bulbs or lamps which are used to produce artificial light for the purpose of only such illumination as is produced for the dispelling of darkness, and definitions are quoted from the Century. Dictionary and Cyclopedia and from Funk & Wagnalls’ New Standard Dictionary.

It is noted that in each of the definitions as paraphrased or quoted by said court, reference is made to “strip,” “filament,” or “resistant thread,” as an element through which an electric current passes to render such “strip,” “filament,” or “resistant thread” incandescent and thus produce illumination.

The court also quotes from the Summary of Tariff Information, 1921, furnished to the United States Senate for use during the consideration by that body of the bill which eventuated in the Tariff Act of 1922, after said bill had passed the House of Representatives, as follows:

INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LAMPS
Description and uses. — An incandescent electric lamp is a vacuum (or gas filled) .glass bulb containing filaments of some material with high melting point which an electric current will heat to incandescence. According to the nature of the filaments, the lamps are called carbon, metallized carbon, tantalum, and tungsten. The tungsten filament can be operated at a temperature which gives the maximum amount of light in proportion to the electrical energy used, and has practically .superseded all the other forms.
Important changes in classification. — Electric bulbs and lamps have been removed from paragraph 95, act of 1913, including other manufactures of glass, and are provided for in a separate paragraph.

It may be stated that the first paragraph of the foregoing statement was likewise before the House of Representatives in the 1920 ■summary while that body was considering the bill. After the foregoing quotation the court says—

It is obvious that the common meaning of the term “incandescent electric-’light bulbs and lamps, with or without filaments,” does not include therein "the quartz-glass tubes in question herein.

The court pointed out that under the definitions quoted by it—

■* * * the commonly accepted use of merchandise snch as is described in ¡paragraph 229, supra, is for purposes of illumination.

It further points out that no attempt was made to show that the involved merchandise—

* * * was known in the wholesale trade and commerce of the United States ¡as incandescent electric-light bulbs and lamps.

[404]*404The insistence of appellants is that the articles involved fall squarely within said paragraph 229. We quote from their brief:

* * * the lamps conform to the qualifications required by the statute as conditions of classification. They are incandescent lamps because the light is given by incandescence. They are electric-light lamps because they give light and because the source of the light is the electric current. They are lamps because they are the light-giving element. It is entirely immaterial that they are not constructed exactly the same as the original incandescent electric-light lamp. They are dutiable under the provision because they conform to the qualifications named by the statute.

It should be borne in mind that illumination results from the use of the article, but such illumination is not for the same purpose as the illumination which comes from the ordinary electric-light lamp.

It seems, therefore, that the articles, as argued by counsel for appellants, do "conform,” in express terms, "to the qualifications named by the statute,” and that they are classifiable thereunder unless we are required to look to the purpose of the light produced by them and limit the meaning of illumination to that which is produced simply for dispelling darkness.

It is true that these tubes have no metallic filaments. In use the mercury vapor supplies the resistant element through which the current passes to produce the rays of light used, and the paragraph expressly states "with or vnthout filaments.” (Italics ours.)

It may be here said that much of appellants’ brief seems to proceed upon the theory that these articles were not being manufactured at the time of the passage of the Tariff Act of 1922, but the evidence in the case does not justify such an assumption. On the contrary, appellants’ witness, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
19 C.C.P.A. 401, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 24, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redden-v-united-states-ccpa-1932.