Thorens, Inc. v. United States

31 C.C.P.A. 125, 1943 CCPA LEXIS 133
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 1, 1943
DocketNo. 4442
StatusPublished

This text of 31 C.C.P.A. 125 (Thorens, 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
Thorens, Inc. v. United States, 31 C.C.P.A. 125, 1943 CCPA LEXIS 133 (ccpa 1943).

Opinion

Lenroot, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal involves the classification and assessment with duty of certain articles imported by appellant from Switzerland and entered at the port of New York.

They were classified by the collector as manufactures in chief value of wood and assessed with duty at 33$ per centum ad valorem under the provision of paragraph 412 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

Appellant protested this classification, claiming that the merchandise is dutiable at 20 per centum under paragraph 1541 (a), as modified by the Swiss Trade Agreement, T. D. 48093, or at 20 per centum under paragraph 1558 or at 27$ per centum under paragraph 372 of said Tariff Act.

Only the claims under said paragraph 1541 (a) and 372 were urged before the trial court, and therefore the claim under paragraph 1558 is considered as abandoned.

One witness testified before the trial court and a sample of the merchandise was introduced in evidence as appellant’s Exhibit 1.

The Government offered no evidence.

Said Exhibit 1 is concisely described in the decision of the trial court as follows:

Walker, Judge: The merchandise the subject of this protest is represented by exhibit 1 before us. It consists of a toilet paper distributor or roll holder designed to be hung on or set into the wall. In back of the wooden plate which forms the front of the article is attached a music-box movement so arranged that upon using the device the music-box mechanism is started and plays the popular refrain “Whistle While You Work,” automatically stopping at the end. A winding key projects through the wooden plate.

Its operation was described by appellant’s witness Hallock as follows: ,.

Q. Now referring to Exhibit 1 in this case, will you please explain just how it operates.- — A. Yes. That has a cylinder, what we term a cylinder musical movement inside, with what we term a trigger stopper, a spring on there. When the roll is turned the spring is actuated, releasing this little trigger, tripping' it, and allowing the cylinder to revolve one complete revolution, which permits it to play a tune.
Q. Does Exhibit 1 have a top or a lid? — A. Yes; the face of it would be considered the top, and we refer to the part with the screws in as the back.
[127]*127Q. Is the music produced by the vibrations of the steel teeth or comb coming in contact with the pins on the cylinder? — A. That is correct.
Q. And is the cylinder turned by a spring motor which is wound up by the key? — A. That is right.

The tariff provisions in issue read as follows:

Par. 412. * * * manufactures of wood or bark, or of which wood or bark is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for, 33J4 per centum ad valorem.
Par. 1541 as modified by the Swiss Trade Agreement, T. D. 48093:
Par. 372. * * * all other machines, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for, 27J4 per centum ad valorem * * * .

The trial court held that the music-box feature is merely “an incident to the article” and that the articles are not classifiable under said modified paragraph 1541. as “music boxes.” It further held that the involved articles were not machines under the provisions of paragraph 372, and therefore overruled the protest.

Judgment was entered accordingly and appellant took this appeal therefrom.

We are in full accord with the conclusions reached by the trial court.

The article is suitable for use and designed for use only in the bathroom or lavatory, and then only when there is occasion to operate the toilet roll. It is more than a music box.

In the case of McLaughlin & Freeman v. United States, 18 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 128, T. D. 44094, it was held on the record there before us that certain ornamental photographic pictures on glass gilded on the back thereof for the purpose of ornamentation were more than photographs and were dutiable under paragraph 218 of the Tariff Act of 1922 as articles in chief value of glass.

In its opinion the court stated:

Exhibits 1 and 2 show the articles as actually imported. _ These are images taken by ordinary photographic processes and transferred to sensitized glass just as occurred in the case of illustrative Exhibit A, but the glass upon which the tinted images appear has undergone a still further treatment whereby its back has been gilded with some character of substance, and the front borders have likewise been treated. This gilding process constitues no part of the photograph. We assume this treatment was for the purpose of furnishing an opaque back for the glass itself, and for ornamentation. This process has to do wholly with the glass itself and neither the frames nor the pasteboard backgrounds are involved.
It is our belief that this additional treatment of the glass renders the article more than is comprised in the dictionary definition of “photograph,” as quoted in our former opinion, viz:
[128]*1281.' A picture or likeness obtained by photography.

Judge Hatfield dissented in that case upon the ground that the gilding referred to was for the purpose of finishing or improving the photographs. In his dissenting opinion he stated “If the articles in question had been so processed as to make them.something other than photographs, an entirely different question would be presented.”

In the case at bar the articles are clearly more than music boxes. They are, in fact, toilet roll holders in combination with music boxes.

It is true that in the case of United States v. McLaughlin & Freeman, 20 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 263, T. D. 46059, articles similar to those involved in the McLaughlin & Freeman case first above cited and quoted from were before us, and we there held upon the record then in that case that the evidence established that the gilding discussed in the first case was necessary for the finishing of the photograph and therefore they should be classified as photographs and affirmed the judgment of the trial court in so holding. We did not, however, disapprove our holding in the previous case that upon the record there presented the gilding there described-was not necessary to finish the photographs, and that they were more than photographs.

In the case of United States v. Sydney Kann & Co., 20 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 77, T. D. 45702, there was involved the dutiable classification of a mechanical pencil having in the top thereof a cigar or cigarette lighter. They were claimed to be dutiable as mechanical pencils under paragraph 1550 (c) of the Tariff Act of 1930. The trial court sustained this contention and its judgment was reversed.

In our opinion we stated:

The proof in the ease throws no light upon the question of whether the pencil portion or the lighter portion of the article is the dominant feature, but certainly the addition of the lighter feature adds something to the pencil and creates a combination article not specifically described in any part of paragraph 1550.

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31 C.C.P.A. 125, 1943 CCPA LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thorens-inc-v-united-states-ccpa-1943.