Scharf Bros. v. United States

25 C.C.P.A. 32, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 165
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 1937
DocketNo. 4050
StatusPublished

This text of 25 C.C.P.A. 32 (Scharf Bros. 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
Scharf Bros. v. United States, 25 C.C.P.A. 32, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 165 (ccpa 1937).

Opinions

Graham, Presiding Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The present appeal involves two importations of rock candy, one under the Tariff Act of 1922, and the other under the Tariff Act of 1930. These importations were made at the port of New York, and in the first case the imported merchandise was classified by the collector as confectionery not specially provided for, under paragraph 505 of the Tariff Act of 1922, and in the latter case as confectionery not specially provided for, under paragraph 506 of the Tariff Act of 1930. In the first case the merchandise was claimed to be dutiable under its appropriate rate under paragraph 501, or, alternatively, at 25 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 5, as a medicinal preparation, or, alternatively, at 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1459 of the Tariff Act of 1922., as a manufactured article not enumerated. The importation under the Tariff Act of 1930 was claimed by the protest to be dutiable at 25 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 5, or at the appropriate rate under paragraph 501, or under paragraph 1558, as manufactured goods not enumerated.

The cases were consolidated on the trial, and it was conceded by the importer's counsel that the sole claim made by importer was that the [33]*33goods were dutiable as medicinal preparations under said paragraphs 5 of the respective acts of 1922 and 1930.

The relevant paragraphs are as follows':

Paragraph 5, acts of 1922 and 1930:

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.

Tariff Act of 1922:

Par. 505. Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for, and sugar after being refined, when tinctured, colored, or in any way adulterated, 40 per centum ad valorem.

Tariff Act of 1930:

Par. 506. Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for, 40 per centum ad valorem; sugar after being refined, when tinctured, colored, or in any way adulterated, 40 per centum ad valorem, but not less than the rate of duty provided in paragraph 501 for sugar of the same polariscopic test.

By agreement of counsel, the record in T. D. 47711 was offered in evidence. This was a record in a former case which had been heard by the Customs Court, and in which the issues were the same as in the case at bar, and wherein, spealdng through Evans, J., the court had held that the imported material was properly classifiable as a medicinal preparation.

In the case at bar, the United States Customs Court reviewed the record in T. D. 47711, and also the record made in this case, and after having considered the same, was of opinion, as expressed by Evans, J., spealdng for the court, that importer had failed to prove, in the case at bar, that the chief use of the imported material was as a medicinal preparation, and therefore sustained the classification. From that judgment the importer has appealed.

It appears that the only issue now before us is the correctness of the court’s decision on the question of fact presented to it. In order to dispose of that question, some review of the testimony is necessary.

In the record in T. D. 47711, it appears' that the material imported was identical with that here involved. It is crystallized sucrose consisting, as shown by the chemical analysis, of 99.86 per centum cane sugar or sucrose, crystallized on strings, and known commonly as white rock candy.

On the former hearing, the importer called as witnesses a pharmacist, an analyst, the treasurer of the importer company, and two licensed physicians. The first of these, David Kranis, stated that he sold rock candy, and that people purchasing the same stated that they used the same for the relief of throat irritations, as an expectorant, or, in connection with other herbs, as a sedative expectorant to relieve [34]*34smokers’ throat, and to increase salivation and relieve “bringing up of the mucous.” These, he stated, were the chief uses of rock candy. Sometimes, he stated, they purchased such other materials as brastlea or alphaea root, flaxseed and licorice, to be used with rock candy as a mixture. He stated that it was also used with alcoholic liquor in “Rock and Rye.” He also introduced specimens of two medicinal preparations which contained rock candy and which were said to be cough remedies. He was of opinion that the action of rock candy was somewhat “more permanent” than that of other sugar.

Dr. Maxwell H. Poppel, one of the physicians, testified that he had .been practicing medicine since June 1927; that he had learned the uses of rock candj"; that it was used chiefly as a demulcent, “which is a substance that soothes mucous membranes and lessens irritations such as in any sort of chronic conditions; for burns, inflammatory swellings of an irritative nature decrease all the salivary secretions, where the purpose is to increase the saliva.” He was of opinion that rock candy had a therapeutic value, “that its chief action is a demulcent,” and stated that he had prescribed it; that it had value as a medicinal preparation, stating “It has the value that before the whole mixture reaches the esophagus, the rock candy takes an effect on the mucous surfaces in which it comes in contact, the moment it passes the lips until it passes into, mixes with the saliva in the mouth.”

The other physician, Gustave Nemhauser, has practiced medicine since 1930 in New York City, and gave it as his opinion that rock candy was used as a demulcent and as an expectorant in acute and chronic ■ throat infections and in irritations of the throat, such as smoking too frequently. He also stated, that it had a therapeutic value and that he had seen it used to some extent among the poorer classes in the making of home remedies.

Upon this testimony the court was of the opinion, as heretofore stated, that the preponderance of the evidence showed the chief use of the imported commodity to be that of a curative or therapeutic agent.

In addition to the record in T. D. 47711, three witnesses were called on behalf of the Government in the case at bar, and one on behalf of the importer.

The witnesses called by the Government were James B. Ryan, past assistant surgeon, United States Public Health Service, William I. Green, in charge of the drug department of the United States Marine Hospital, at Ellis Island, and Elizabeth Goodman, a physician licensed to practice in the State of New York and several other States.

The witness Ryan had been connected with the Public Health Service for ten years, and was a graduate of the University of Maryland. In his official work at the United States Marine Hospital, at [35]*35Ellis Island, he treated approximately 100 patients a day, suffering from all sorts of human ailments. He testified that in all his experience he had never prescribed rock candy, and had never seen it used as a therapeutic agent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
25 C.C.P.A. 32, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scharf-bros-v-united-states-ccpa-1937.