Singer Manufacturing Co. v. United States

22 Cust. Ct. 21, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1216
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1949
DocketC. D. 1152
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 22 Cust. Ct. 21 (Singer Manufacturing 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
Singer Manufacturing Co. v. United States, 22 Cust. Ct. 21, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1216 (cusc 1949).

Opinion

LawkeNCE, Judge:

This controversy arises out of the action of the collector of customs in classifying certain iron castings imported in a rough, unmachined condition as parts of machines, not specially provided for, in paragraph 372 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and imposing duty thereon accordingly at the rate of 27/ per centum ad valorem.

Plaintiff has challenged the decision of the collector by protest and claims that the merchandise is dutiable at 10 per centum ad valorem pursuant to the terms of paragraph 327 of said act, as modified by the trade agreement between the United States and Canada, effective January 1, 1939, 74 Treas. Dec. 235, T. D. 49752, which reads in part as follows, the pertinent language being stressed:

Cast-iron, andirons, plates, stove plates, sadirons, tailors’ irons, hatters’ irons, but not including electric irons, and castings and vessels wholly of cast iron, including all castings of iron or cast-iron plates which have been chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process but not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts.

It is not disputed that the articles in their imported condition were rough, unmachined, and unfinished castings, which, after processing by machining and finishing in this country, are used in power-transmitting mechanisms commonly known as power tables for driving industrial sewing machines.

There being no dispute as to the identity, character, or ultimate use of the castings, we feel that it would serve no useful purpose to here set forth an analysis of the testimony or other factual data. The case resolves itself into a plain and clear-cut question of law.

It is the contention of the Government, as expressed in its brief, that the articles “have been so advanced in manufacture that they have reached the stage where they are clearly incapable of being made into more than one article, to wit, parts of power tables/' and that consequently they were properly classified as parts of machines, not specially provided for.

Plaintiff contends that the articles are definitely provided for as castings of iron of the kind described in paragraph 327, as modified, sufra, and are dutiable accordingly.

In approaching this case, we are confronted with an apparent conflict of decisions by this court regarding the scope and application of paragraph 327, supra.

In B. A. McKenzie & Co., Inc. v. United States, 3 Cust. Ct. 72, C. D. 206, it appears that certain rough iron castings were classified for duty as parts of machine tools in paragraph 372 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The importer claimed that the articles should have been classified as castings of iron within the provisions of paragraph 327 of said act, as in the case before us.

[23]*23In bolding that the castings were unfinished parts of machine tools and dutiable accordingly pursuant to the terms of paragraph 372, supra, the court applied the “* * * well-settled principle of customs law that where a material has been so advanced in manufacture as to have reached the stage in which it is clearly incapable of being made into more than one' article, then it shall be deemed, even though unfinished, to have been so dedicated to a single use as to fix its status as a part of that article, where the article is in fact such a part,” citing United States v. Schenkers, Inc., 17 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 231, T. D. 43669.

We fully agree with the appellate court in its statement in the Schenkers case, supra, that—

* * * We think this naked principle of law thus stated is sound, but is it applicable in the instant case?

We do not believe that the castings before us come within the well-settled principle above announced. While it may be true that they bear the earmarks of their intended use, they nevertheless have not, in any proper sense, been “advanced in manufacture” but. have merely reached their first estate as crude castings of iron. We deem it of no particular significance that the various castings bear indications of their ultimate use for the simple reason that so far as we are informed substantially all castings of iron are fabricated from predetermined patterns which naturally suggest their intended use.

Moreover, the connotation of that portion of paragraph 327, supra, with which we are particularly concerned, is very persuasive in establishing the proper classification of these castings in that paragraph. There appears first a provision for—

castings * * * of cast iron * * *

and this is supplemented by the following words of extension:

including all castings of iron * * * which have been chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process but not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts.

The phraseology of the second portion of the paragraph above quoted clearly indicates that the first phrase quoted was intended to embrace castings as they first arrive in commerce in their crude state. Otherwise it would have been unnecessary for Congress to have extended the provision to include castings of iron which have been processed by the various operations specified in the paragraph subsequent to the casting process, provided they were “not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts.”

The use of the words “finished machine parts” clearly .implies that castings of iron which might be regarded as unfinished machine parts [24]*24(provided that they were not made up into articles or parts thereof) were within the paragraph.

The phrase above quoted “not made up into articles,” has been interpreted by the courts and, as directly in point, we quote from United States v. Leigh & Butler, 4 Ct. Cust. Appls. 304, T. D. 33517, which related to iron castings, as follows:

It thus appears that the verb “to make up” invariably expresses a process of aggregating or assembling different units into a composite entirety. Correspondingly it may be assumed that a made-up article is one which has been thus composed by uniting together various parts. This also is the meaning given by common acceptation to the term. For example, a made-up train is an assembled train composed of various cars. On the other hand a single pulley, gear, or lever ordinarily would not be called a made-up article. This definition of the controlling term strongly tends to sustain the contention of the importers and leads to the conclusion that the term “made up into articles,” appearing in paragraph 147 [the castings provision in the Tariff Act of 1909], does not apply to separate parts like those at bar not usable of themselves and not fitted or combined into an assembled article.

See also Simon, Buhler & Baumann (Inc.), v. United States, 8 Ct. Cust. Appls. 273, T. D. 37537.

There would-seem to be no escape, therefore, from the conclusion that the articles which form the subject of this controversy are not subject to classification as parts of machines, not specially provided for, in paragraph 372, supra, but that they are specifically provided for in paragraph 327, supra, as castings of iron.

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Pistorino & Co. v. United States
53 Cust. Ct. 174 (U.S. Customs Court, 1964)
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37 C.C.P.A. 104 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Cust. Ct. 21, 1949 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1216, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/singer-manufacturing-co-v-united-states-cusc-1949.