Spartan Aircraft Co. v. United States

33 Cust. Ct. 33, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 566
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 30, 1954
DocketC. D. 1630
StatusPublished

This text of 33 Cust. Ct. 33 (Spartan Aircraft 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
Spartan Aircraft Co. v. United States, 33 Cust. Ct. 33, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 566 (cusc 1954).

Opinion

Lawrence, Judge:

The question here presented for our determination is the proper classification and assessment with duty of an importation from Switzerland of what is described on the consular invoice as “Aluminium extruded angle” in lengths from 17 to 20 feet. A sample which represents the importation in every material respect except as to length was received in evidence and marked exhibit 1.

The merchandise was assessed with duty at the rate of 22 K per centum ad valorem pursuant to the provision in paragraph 397 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 397), as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (82 Treas. Dec. 305, T. D. 51802), for—

[34]*34Articles or wares not specially provided for, whether partly or wholly manufactured:
Composed wholly or in chief value of iron, steel, lead, copper, brass, nickel, pewter, zinc, aluminum, or other metal (not including platinum, gold, or silver), but not plated with platinum, gold, or silver, or colored with gold lacquer:
* # * * * * *
Other * * *_22)4% ad val.

The sole claim of plaintiff is that the importation should have beén subjected to duty at the rate of 3 cents per pound within the provision in paragraph 374 of said act (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 374), as modified, supra, as follows:

Aluminum, aluminum scrap, and alloys (except those provided for in paragraph 302, Tariff Act of 1930) in which aluminum is the component material of chief value:
¡fa ‡ # % ‡ s}c #
In coils, plates, sheets, bars, rods, circles, disks, . blanks, strips, rectangles, and squares_ 3(4 per lb.

It is the contention of plaintiff that the merchandise is a raw material which falls within the class of articles enumerated in said paragraph 374; that the enumeration in said paragraph of aluminum in coils, plates, sheets, bars, rods, circles, disks, blanks, strips, and so forth, is broad and general in terms embracing aluminum raw materials; and that since the angles are made by the extrusion process, in the same manner that rods are made, they are not articles or wares such as shaped parts but are material for use in the manufacture of articles, the record disclosing that they are used in the manufacture, repair, and overhaul of airplanes as well as in the manufacture of house trailers.

Plaintiff’s witness, Robert E. Neal, who was shown to have had many years’ experience in the overhaul and maintenance of aircraft and was familiar with materials such as exhibit 1, testified that he had seen such material used in a limited capacity on the hulls of flying boats, and that it was used as a stiffener as a part of the structural members of the hull, being shaped to fit the contour of the particular part of the aircraft. Neal testified that, in the late 1920’s, the material was commonly known in the aircraft industry as “extrusion”; that some of the purchasing agents at times referred to it as an extrusion angle bar. He explained the manufacture of “extrusion” in the following terms:

They are manufactured by a process of heat and pressure, forcing it through an orifice. In the cross section of the orifice will be the shape of the extrusion. In other words, if it’s an angle why it will be forced through an orifice that will conform to the dimensions of the particular extrusions being manufactured.

[35]*35To produce a “sheet” of aluminum, he testified that it was manufactured by putting a billet “through a process of rollers which are graduated down to the thickness that you wish the material to 'be at the finished product, at the end of the finished product. * * * It’s run through a series of rollers, and of course the last roller going through will be the desired thickness of the material to be used.”

Although the material is received by the plaintiff company in lengths of 17 to 20 feet, it is cut to dimensions of 3 to 4 inches, or it may be cut in lengths of 10 to 15 feet, depending upon the use to which it is to be put, whether in the fuselage, the hull, the wings, or the empennage, being formed by hydropress, shrinking, or by hand, to fit the particular contour where it is to be used. In the manufacture of house trailers, the use is very similar. The material has to be formed, and the lengths will vary to meet the requirements of windows, doors, and the coastal members of the trailer.

Exhibit 1 is not polished but is in the condition as it comes from the die, and in that condition it is used as material by the plaintiff company.

The record also discloses that in the manufacture and repair of airplanes, as well as in the manufacture of house trailers, aluminum in “sheets” is used, being subjected to much the same treatment as that described in the use of angles.

On cross-examination, Neal testified that in its imported condition he would call merchandise represented by exhibit 1 an “extruded aluminum angle”; that it is used in its condition as imported, sometimes without being bent and at other times bent or otherwise formed to meet certain requirements, and holes are drilled to enable the angles to be attached to a surface with the use of screws; that before the merchandise was extruded into the form of exhibit 1, it was a billet, the witness stating that a billet differs from a bar in that it is larger and is in a rough form, being the first condition in which aluminum appears from the ore; that aluminum rectangles are produced from a billet in the same manner as are the angles represented by exhibit 1, the difference being that in one instance the product is an equal angle, and in the other it is a rectangle.

Neal was the only witness in the case and his testimony stands uncontradicted. The case, therefore, resolves itself into the sole question whether aluminum in the form of angles, such as exhibit 1, answers the call of paragraph'374, supra, which so far as pertinent here provides for “Aluminum * * * In coils, plates, sheets, bars, rods, circles, disks, blanks, strips, rectangles, and squares.”

It is fundamental that tariff statutes are couched in the language of commerce, which is presumptively that in common use, and it is equally elemental that the common and commercial meanings of the terms used to describe merchandise in tariff laws are presumed to be [36]*36the same, unless there is clear and convincing proof to the contrary. Meyer & Lange et al. v. United States, 6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 181, T. D. 35436; Hartmann Trunk Co. v. United States, 27 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 254, C. A. D. 95; C. J. Tower & Sons v. United States, 41 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 195, C. A. D. 550.

In the case before us, no effort was made to establish a commercial meaning of the term “bars,” or any of the other words above quoted from paragraph 374, different from their common meaning.

Defendant’s brief invites our attention to the following definitions of the terms “bars” and “angle” from recognized lexicographic authorities:

The term “bars” is defined in Webster’s New International Dictionary at p. 217:
1.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Meyer v. United States
6 Ct. Cust. 181 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 Cust. Ct. 33, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spartan-aircraft-co-v-united-states-cusc-1954.