Shalom & Co. v. United States

12 Cust. Ct. 200, 1944 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 31
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 31, 1944
DocketC. D. 854
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 12 Cust. Ct. 200 (Shalom & Co. v. United States) 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
Shalom & Co. v. United States, 12 Cust. Ct. 200, 1944 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 31 (cusc 1944).

Opinion

TilsoN, Judge:

This suit against the United States presents for determination the question of the proper classification of certain imported gloves upon which duty was levied at 90 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1529 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as being in part of lace. The plaintiff claims the same to be properly dutiable at only 37% per centum ad valorem under paragraph 919 of the act of 1930, as articles of wearing apparel of every description, manufactured wholly or in part, wholly or in chief value of cotton, and not specially provided for.

It has been agreed by counsel for the respective parties that the gloves are composed wholly of cotton having a staple of less than 1% inches in length, and that they were made by hand. This eliminates these two questions from further consideration.

This case is a retrial of the issue presented and decided in Shalom & Co. v. United States, C. D. 714, from which no appeal was taken.

Prior to the actual trial of this case counsel for the respective parties also agreed that the merchandise in case No. 340 invoiced as item No. 800, and described as “cotton net gloves,” consists of gloves the same in all material respects as those which were the subject of Shalom v. United States, C. D. 714; that the record therein may be admitted in evidence herein; and that the exhibits in that case be received in evidence in this case under the same numbers or letters which they bore in the former case. Whereupon the plaintiff rested.

Counsel for the defendant then made the following statement:

However, it is the Government’s position that the article before the court is a lace glove. It is also our position that the article before the court is in part of trimming. Either one of the circumstances would bring the gloves squarely within the language of paragraph 1529 of the Tariff Act of 1930, under which it was classified at 90 per centum ad valorem; in part of trimming or edging, to me the words are almost synonymous.

In the former case thirteen witnesses testified for. the plaintiff and five for the defendant, while in the present case seven witnesses testified for the defendant and seven for the plaintiff in rebuttal. In addition thereto numerous exhibits were offered and admitted in evidence.

It should be observed that the defendant has abandoned the classification made by the collector as “articles in part of lace” and contends that the gloves are “lace gloves” or gloves in part of trimming or edging. The defendant, therefore, assumed the burden of establishing these claims without the usual presumption of correctness attaching to either.

[202]*202One of plaintiff’s witnesses testified that the involved gloves are made in substantially the following manner.

In making the gloves the worker uses a short stick, about 5 inches long, and a needle around which thread is wound; that with the use of the stick, needle and thread the girl worker begins to make the glove at a point where the hand meets the cuff; she then works down, making one side of the thumb first, then she works up and down again, making the next finger, then she works up and back until one side of the glove is finished; that when she gets to the last finger she makes the other side of the hand, and when she came to the last part of the hand she continued to make the cuff, making one side first and then the other side. This was one continuous operation from start to finish, with a continuous thread, and all done by hand; that what might bo called “knots" which appear on the back of the hand of the glove and on the cuff, were made by the worker in the course of the production of the glove as she went along; that when she came to the point where the so-called “knots” appear, they were made right at that point and then the worker continued from there; that when both sides of the glove were finished, the worker joined them together, and then the glove was finished; that whatever work appears on the glove was done in the course of making the glove.

The above description of the process of making these "gloves was given by a witness who had actually seen the work done and who brought the glove thus made into court and it was admitted in evidence as illustrative exhibit C. At the trial of the present case one witness attempted to refute the testimony as to the process used in making the glove, from an examination of the sample in evidence, and apparently without having seen this or any other glove made. We find, however, that such points in the manufacture of the glove as the two witnesses disagree upon are not material to a decision in this case.

In our former decision we stated that:

On the back of the hand portion of exhibit 1 appear two rows consisting of 11 dots or knots and one row consisting of 13 dots or knots and approximately 2 inches in length. It can scarcely be denied that these dots or knots are designs. The cuffs of exhibit 1 are constructed of much larger mesh than the hand portion and the threads appear to have been doubled. The additional threads in both the hand and cuff portions of the glove were placed there by the worker at the time she reached that particular point in making the glove, as hereinbefore set out. Whether or not these doubled threads form or produce such designs as rise to the dignity of lace designs is the question to be decided here.

It should also be stated that counsel for the defendant contends that the “dots” or “knots” serve to make the otherwise net gloves, lace gloves.

Wo also quote the following from our previous decision:

Although not expressed in identical language, all of plaintiffs’ witnesses were in general agreement that the dots or knots or the grouping of threads on the back and on the cuff of exhibit 1 do not produce a design in any way like or similar to the design of any lace which they had ever seen or handled at any time.
* * * % * * ‡
All of plaintiffs’ witnesses who had bought and sold lace and net gloves over a long period of time and in substantial quantities agreed that gloves like or similar [203]*203to exhibit 1 had always been sold as net or filet net gloves and that they had never been sold as filet lace gloves or as lace gloves of any kind.

The statements contained in the above quotations are equally applicable to the record in the present case.

One of defendant's witnesses expressed the opinion that exhibit 1 was a lace glove, but he also stated that filet net by itself is a lace, and that if exhibit 1 were composed entirely of filet mesh, it would nevertheless be a lace glove. Another of defendant’s witnesses, after testifying that exhibit 1 was a lace glove, testified further as follows:

A. The glove is a filet mesh¡ you see, but as soon as it is made in a particular shape, like this, or any other particular shape, you know it is not a net any more. A net is something flat, you see. A net is something flat, and as soon as you have something shaped it is a lace already. It is made for a special purpose.
X Q. In other words, if the filet mesh, or net that appears in there was made straight, we will say by the yard, you would say it was a filet net? — A. I'would call it a hand-made filet net — hand-made.
X Q.

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Related

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38 Cust. Ct. 368 (U.S. Customs Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
12 Cust. Ct. 200, 1944 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shalom-co-v-united-states-cusc-1944.