United States v. F. W. Myers & Co.

24 C.C.P.A. 464, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 23
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 29, 1937
DocketNo. 4011
StatusPublished

This text of 24 C.C.P.A. 464 (United States v. F. W. Myers & Co.) 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
United States v. F. W. Myers & Co., 24 C.C.P.A. 464, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 23 (ccpa 1937).

Opinion

BlaNd, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Forty-nine rolls of paper were imported from Canada into .the-United States on February 3, 1934. The collector classified the same under the provision of paragraph 1401, Tariff Act of 1930, as “all', uncoated printing paper, not specially provided for”, and assessed duty at one-fourth of 1 cent per pound and 10 per centum ad valorem,.

[466]*466In appellee’s protest it was claimed that the said merchandise was properly entitled to entry free of duty under paragraph 1772 of said act as “Standard newsprint paper.”

The United States Customs Court, Second Division, sustained the protest of the appellee and the Government has here appealed from the judgment of said court.

It was stated in oral argument that the paper was ordered to weigh 38 pounds per ream. The bill of lading contains the notation “StaNdaed NewspriNT Paper 38# Basis.” The Government contends that some of the paper involved here weighed 38 pounds and up to 40 pounds per ream. However, the particular sample submitted to the chemist of the United States laboratory — appraiser’s stores — was shown to weigh 36.22 pounds per ream consisting of 500 sheets, 24 by 36 inches. In view of our conclusion, just how much more than 36.22 pounds, if any, the paper weighed, is not of great importance.

The importer offered the testimony of five witnesses, and the Government that of eight witnesses in connection with the issue as to whether or not the imported paper responded to the term “Standard newsprint paper.” The testimony is set out in the decision qf the trial court and in the briefs of the parties. There is little, if any, dispute as to what the testimony shows. Concerning the weight and effect to be given the testimony there is a wide disagreement between the parties. In view of our conclusion it will not be necessary, as will appear later, for us to state or discuss at length the evidence of record.

In the Government’s appeal many errors are assigned, some of which are based upon the rulings of the court to the effect that it was not necessary for the appellee to prove the chief use of paper of the kind, class, or character in question, prior to June 17, 1930, the effective date of the Tariff Act of 1930. It is the main contention of the Government that the record does not show that merchandise of the kind and class of the involved importation was known as “standard newsprint paper” or was chiefly used for the printing of newspapers on, or immediately prior to, June 17, 1930.

We have road the voluminous record with care and we agree with the Government’s contention that the record does not establish the chief use of paper of the kind, class or character of that imported prior to the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1930. The case w~as not tried upon that theory in the court below. It was the contention of counsel for appellee there and here that the imported merchandise and paper like it, when imported, was used in this country, for the printing of newspapers, and that it was not necessary, under this court’s holding in United States v. F. S. Whelan, 22 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 426, T. D. 47424, to prove any chief use prior to the passage of the tariff act. The trial court definitely ruled that it was not necessary [467]*467to prove chief use prior to the passage of the tariff act and relied upon our said decision in the Whelan case, supra.

The Government contended in the court below that “Standard newsprint paper” is only such wood pulp paper as has a weight of “not less than 30 pounds nor more than 35 pounds” for a ream of 500 sheets, 24 by 36 inches, which, the record shows, was the definition of such paper made by the Treasury Department in T. D. 40996, 47 Treas. Dec. 844. Here, it confines the limits of weight to “32 pounds * * * but never in excess of 36 pounds” per ream. As we understand the main contention of the Government, it is that newsprint paper is only that kind of wood pulp paper which was chiefly used in this country for the printing of newspapers prior to the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930, and that “Standard newsprint paper” is confined to paper which weighs 32 pounds per ream and up to and including 36 pounds per ream.

The appellee, agreeable to the statement of some of its witnesses, contends that the addition of the word “Standard” adds nothing to and takes nothing from the term “newsprint paper” and, in substance, argues that in determining what “Standard newsprint paper” is, we may ignore the word “Standard.”

Some of appellee’s witnesses distinguish “Standard newsprint paper” from newsprint paper, and practically all the testimony offered by the Government is to the effect that newsprint paper is a broader term than “Standard newsprint paper.” There is practical unanimity, however, between the witnesses for the Government and the witnesses for the appellee that 32 pounds per ream is the “basis” or “basic weight.” This “basic weight” became well understood, prior to 1922, in the wholesale newsprint paper trade after a committee of paper manufacturers had met and adopted said 32-pound weight as the basic weight for contract purposes. A standardized form of contract was adopted fixing 32 pounds as the basis. Certain tolerances were allowed in the contract. But we regard the action of the Treasury Department and the said committee and many other facts found in the record to be of little importance in determining the controlling issue presented here.

In the Whelan case, supra, we had under consideration one car out of forty-four cars of paper imported, the width of the paper in controversy being 15% inches. It was in all respects the same quality and type of paper except in one dimension — width—as the paper in the other forty-three cars which was admittedly free of duty as ■“Standard newsprint paper” and was used by the Cincinnati Enquirer in printing the magazine and comic sections of its regular Sunday editions. It was imported and used after the effective date of the Tariff Act of 1930. The Government there contended that it was necessary to show that paper only 15% inches wide was chiefly used [468]*468for printing newspapers prior to or at the time of the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930. A careful reading of the opinion discloses that not only did the Government call this court’s attention to its contention;, but that in a dissenting opinion the subject matter of the Government’s contention was raised. It was the opinion of the court that, the paper involved belonged “to a class chiefly used for the printing of newspapers.” The court then referred to Crown Willamette Paper Co. v. United States, 16 Ct. Cust. Appls. 431, T. D. 43187, and United States v. James P. Heffernan Paper Co., 17 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 61, T. D. 43358, in which it was said that the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in reporting the bill, which became the Tariff Act of 1922, to the House of Representatives, stated that: “It [standard newsprint paper] is that form of print paper upon which newspapers are printed.” It was the view of the court in the Whelan case.. supra, that the paper involved belonged to a class of paper concerning the free status of which there was no dispute, and the word “class”' was there italicized in the expression used by the court which was a quotation from the Crown Willamette Paper Co. case, supra.

To understand better our decision in the Whelan case, supra,

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24 C.C.P.A. 464, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-f-w-myers-co-ccpa-1937.