Ungerer & Co. v. United States

15 Ct. Cust. 279, 1927 WL 29531, 1927 CCPA LEXIS 117
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 14, 1927
DocketNo. 2980
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 15 Ct. Cust. 279 (Ungerer & Co. 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
Ungerer & Co. v. United States, 15 Ct. Cust. 279, 1927 WL 29531, 1927 CCPA LEXIS 117 (ccpa 1927).

Opinion

Barber, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise involved in this appeal consists of four commodities known respectively as resinarome oak moss, resinarome orris, resinarome labdanum, and resinarome Peru. They are manufactured abroad., apparently in France, by Charabot & Co., and imported by appellant. They are sometimes referred to as resinoids, but commonly as resinaromes, a trade name over which importer, or Charabot & Co., claims exclusive control. The classification of the two resinaromes first mentioned was considered by this court in Ungerer & Co. (Inc.) v. United States, 13 Ct. Cust. Appls. 534, in which it appeared, as it does here, that orris root and oak moss were reduced to powder, subjected to the action of a volatile solvent, which, after a while, was distilled off, leaving a residuum which is a thick, gummy, resinous mass, somewhat fluid, in which condition it is imported.

It appears in the instant case that the last two mentioned resina-romes, in the condition as imported, have been produced respectively from what is called a crude resin labdanum and a crude gum, balsam or resin, Peru in substantially the same manner as the first two. It does not appear how the crude material for the last two resinaromes is obtained. The evaporation of the volatile solvent is, as the testimony on behalf of importer shows, accomplished in a vacuum or under normal pressure, at high or low temperature, just which is not disclosed, nor is the kind of volatile solvent employed made known, the precise method of evaporation and the land of solvent employed being a trade secret. The testimony shows, and it is agreed, that all these resinaromes are used in the manufacture of perfumery.

The merchandise was directly classified by the collector and assessed for duty under the second provision in paragraph 61 of the Tariff Act of 1922. We quote the entire paragraph, numbering for convenience the three provisions or clauses therein:

Perfume materials:
1. Ambergris, castoreum, civet, and musk grained or in pods, 20 per centum ad valorem.
2. Anethol, citral, geraniol, heliotropin, ionone, rhodinol, safrol, terpineol, vanillin, and all natural or synthetic odoriferous or aromatic chemicals, all the foregoing not mixed and not compounded, and not specially provided for, 45 per centum ad valorem.
3. All mixtures or combinations containing essential or distilled oils, or natural or synthetic odoriferous or aromatic substances, 40 cents per pound and 50 per centum ad valorem.
Provided, That only materials not marketable as perfumery, cosmetics, or toilet preparations, and not containing more than 10 per centum of alcohol shall be classified for duty under this paragraph.
[281]*281Provided further, That all of the foregoing materials containing more than 10 per centum of alcohol shall be classified for duty under paragraph 62 as toilet preparations.

Importer contends for classification as a nonenumerated manufactured article under paragraph 1459 of the act at 20 per centum ad valorem, or at the same rate by similitude of use under the first provision in paragraph 61 by reason of the provisions of the similitude paragraph 1460.

The Government contends that all these resinaromes are directly classifiable as we held the first two mentioned to be in the former case — that is, under the third provision in paragraph 61; and, further, that if for any reason paragraph 61 is not directly applicable they are nevertheless classifiable thereunder by similitude and dutiable at the rate provided in the second or third provision thereof. It argues in this connection that if similitude controls, the resinaromes appear to bear a more substantial resemblance in material, quality, and use to the merchandise covered by the third clause of the paragraph than to those covered by the second clause.

In the first case the merchandise had been classified by the collector, the same as here, under the second provision of paragraph 61. It appeared that glucosides and alcohol were components of the two resinaromes there involved. Importer had contended for free entry under paragraph 1584 of the act, and in the alternative for classification under paragraph 1459. The court below found the merchandise to be odoriferous or aromatic chemicals, and sustained the collector’s action. In so doing it overruled a former decision, T. D. 49287, G. A. 8824, in which, on meager evidence, it had held the merchandise to be entitled to free entry as claimed by importer.

As appears by our opinion in the first case, we concluded that because of the unexplained presence of alcohol and glucosides in the resinaromes then before us, as yvell as the testimony that such resin-aromes were not aromatic chemicals in fact, and our understanding that the chemicals referred to in the second provision of paragraph 61 must be capable of being expressed by a definite symbol used in chemistry, that the merchandise was not properly classified by the collector, but should have been directly classified as a mixture or combination containing natural, odoriferous, or aromatic substances under the third provision of paragraph 61, and therefore, without approving the collector’s action, we affirmed the judgment below. It appeared in that case that the resinaromes, were not capable of being expressed by any definite chemical symbol.

In the case at bar the record in the former case was received in evidence. Additional testimony was also introduced on behalf of importer by Doctor Charabot, the manufacturer and inventor or discoverer of the secret process employed in manufacturing these [282]*282resinaromes. He did not testify in the first case, and his testimony here is undisputed. It is to the effect that these resinaromes as imported contain no materials or ingredients whatever other than such as were present in the crude articles; that is, the root, moss, gum, or resin from which they were produced. Two other witnesses also testified on behalf of importer, the substance of whose testimony was that in fact, and in the trade dealing therein, mixtures and combinations used as materials for making perfumery were understood to be obtained by deliberate, artificial combining or mixing of various materials, and that these resinaromes were not such. The Government offered no additional evidence.

The purpose of importer’s additional proof was to meet our conclusion in the former case that the resinaromes were classifiable as mixtures or combinations containing natural or synthetic odoriferous or aromatic substances. It was, as importer argues, the first occasion it had to meet that claim, it not having been litigated in the court below in the first case.

Importer now contends that this uncontroverted proof that the imported resinaromes contain nothing that was not in the original crude material from which they are made results that our conclusion in the first case can not be upheld, in view of the common meaning of the term “mixtures or combinations,” as used in the third provision of paragraph 61.

In view of our former holdings that the words “mixtures” and “combinations” generally mean the artificial mixing or combining of different ingredients, we admit, for the purposes of this decision, the soundness of importer’s contention. See United States v. Davies, Turner & Co. et al., 5 Ct. Cust. Appls.

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Bluebook (online)
15 Ct. Cust. 279, 1927 WL 29531, 1927 CCPA LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ungerer-co-v-united-states-ccpa-1927.