Sandoz Chemical Works, Inc. v. United States

50 C.C.P.A. 31, 1963 CCPA LEXIS 449
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 16, 1963
DocketNo. 5095
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 50 C.C.P.A. 31 (Sandoz Chemical Works, Inc. 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
Sandoz Chemical Works, Inc. v. United States, 50 C.C.P.A. 31, 1963 CCPA LEXIS 449 (ccpa 1963).

Opinion

AlmoND, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal by Sandoz Chemical Works, Inc., importer, from a judgment of the United States Customs Court, First Division, C.D. 2284, overruling the protest against the classification of the Collector of Customs at New York. The merchandise invoiced as methylphenylethylhydantoin, bearing the trade name Mesantoin, was classified as a coal-tar medicinal under the provisions of paragraph 28 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, imposing a duty assessment of 45 per centum ad valorem and 7 cents per pound.

The appellant asserts that the merchandise is properly dutiable under paragraph 5 of said act as a medicinal preparation not specially provided for.

Paragraph 28(a) and paragraph 1651, Tariff Act of 1930, insofar as here relevant, provide:

Par. 28. Ooal-tar products:
(a) * * * acetanilide suitable for medicinal use, acetphenetidine, aeetylsali-cylic acid, ahtipyrine, benzaldehyde suitable for medicinal use, benzoic acid suitable for medicinal use, beta-naphthol suitable for medicinal use, guaiacol and its derivatives, phenolphthalein, resorcinol suitable for medicinal use, salicylic acid and its salts suitable for medicinal use, salol, and, other medicináis; * * * all the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, when obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from any of the products provided [33]*33for in paragraph. 27 or 1651; * * * 45 per centum ad valorem and 7 cents per pound. (Italics ours.)
Par. 1651. Coal-tar products: * * * benzene, * * *.

Paragraph 5, Tariff Act of 1930 is as follows:

All chemical elements, all chemical salts and compounds, all medicinal preparations, and all combinations and mixtures of any of the foregoing, all the foregoing obtained naturally or artificially and not specially provided for, 25 per centum ad valorem.

It is the contention of the appellant that the words “and other medicináis” are indicative of legislative intent to embrace only those medicináis which are ejusdem generis with the twelve eo nomine substances, to wit, acetanilide, acetphenetidine, acetylsalicylic acid, anti-pyrine, benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, beta-naphthol, guaiacol, phenolphthalein, resorcinol, salicylic acid, salol, with the further limitation that the words “and other medicináis” embrace only those medicinal preparations wherein the coal-tar ingredient (benzene) contributes to the therapeutic value of the compound.

The appellee takes issue contending that Mesantoin is a medicinal preparation derived and manufactured in whole or in part from benzene, and is therefore properly classifiable under paragraph 28(a), supra, thus rendering immaterial the question as to whether or not the coal-tar ingredient contributes in any degree to the therapeutic efficacy of Mesantoin. While asserting the immateriality of therapeutic contribution, the appellee contends that the ingredient does contribute to the effectiveness of the product, as found by the Customs Court, and that while the rule of ejusdem generis is not applicable in the instant case, the merchandise is ejusdem generis with the medicináis named in paragraph 28(a), supra.

Proceeding now to discuss and correlate the relevant facts and the law applicable thereto in the light of the issues joined, the Customs Court found that the constituents of Mesantoin, as its chemical designation methylphenylethylhydantoin implies, are a methyl group, a phenyl group, an ethyl group and a hydantoin group. Phenol is a derivative of benzene, a coal-tar substance named in paragraph 1651 of the Tariff Act of 1930. One of the starting materials in the preparation of Mesantoin is a ketone known as propiophenone (phenyl-ethylketone) which contains a phenyl group. It is undisputed that Mesantoin is derived in part from benzene, a coal-tar derivative, and is chiefly used for medicinal purposes, viz, the treatment of epilepsy.

The conclusion seems inescapable to us that the admitted facts would bring the merchandise under consideration within the ambit of paragraph 28, Tariff Act of 1930. The unequivocal language of the statute “and other medicináis; * * * when obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from any of the products provided for in paragraph 27 or 1651; * * *” is devoid of doubt or ambiguity, thus precluding resort to the rules of statutory construction [34]*34to arrive at legislative intendment. It was within the province of the Congress to restrict, qualify or impose conditional facets relating to the purpose and scope of the statute. It did not see fit so to do. It is not within the province of this court to amend or to read into the statute by construction that which is not there.

In support of the contention that the words “and other medicináis” embrace only those medicinal preparations wherein the coal-tar ingredient contributes to the therapeutic value of the compound, the appellant cites Roerig & Co. v. United States, 26 Cust. Ct. 131, C.D. 1313, and Fougera & Co. v. United States, 49 T.D. 986, T.D. 41632. The Roerig and Fougera cases are not in point because in each of these cases the medicinal preparation involved was a mixture of chemical compounds. The coal-tar derivative ingredient of the mixture was not the ingredient imparting therapeutic properties to the preparation. Here, however, the merchandise is a single chemical compound, Mesantoin, and not a mixture of ingredients.

Appellant urges us to dissect the chemical compound and attribute therapeutic properties to only one radical or group of which it is composed. Clearly, the compound is used as a whole and the molecule cannot be split up into its component parts in the same manner that the separate elements of a mixture may be segregated. By definition, Mesantoin contains the phenyl group, a coal-tar derivative. We cannot say that Mesantoin without the phenyl group would be therapeutic because it does not even exist without the phenyl group. In the Roerig and Fougera cases, supra, on the other hand, the medicinal preparation lost none of its therapeutic properties by the absence of the coal-tar derivative.

As this court said in Plant Products Corp. v. United States, 44 CCPA (Customs) 183, 185; C.A.D. 658:

* * * We agree with the conclusion reached that the insecticidal properties of Parathion are due to the molecule as a whole, and, that the coal-tar portion is essential to such properties. (Italics added.)

In this connection, the Customs Court said:

Whether or not an anticonvulsant effective against epilepsy has been or can be produced without the employment of a phenol group is not, in our opinion, decisive in our present determination. The fact of the matter is that, in the case at bar, the imported product, Mesa,ntoin, does contain the phenol group and the record, we believe, is sufficiently conclusive to establish that the phenol group contained therein contributes to the effectiveness of the finished product. As testified to by plaintiff’s witness Maresca, the Mesantoin has a phenol group, the CoHe group in the structural formula, which comes from the starting material, propiophenone or phenylethylketone.

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50 C.C.P.A. 31, 1963 CCPA LEXIS 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sandoz-chemical-works-inc-v-united-states-ccpa-1963.