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

29 C.C.P.A. 34, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 143
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedApril 16, 1941
DocketNo. 4320
StatusPublished

This text of 29 C.C.P.A. 34 (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., 29 C.C.P.A. 34, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 143 (ccpa 1941).

Opinions

Hatfield, Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of tbe court:

Tbis is an appeal from a judgment of tbe United States Customs Court, Third Division.

Merchandise consisting of “Vim Oat Mill Feed” hereinafter described, was assessed for duty by tbe collector at tbe port of Ogdens-burg, N. Y., as ground oat bulls at “10 cents per one hundred pounds” under paragraph 730 of tbe Tariff Act of 1930.

Tbe importer protested tbe collector’s classification, claiming that tbe merchandise was properly dutiable at 10 per centum ad valorem under that paragraph.

Tbe paragraph in question reads:

Pab. 730. Bran, shorts, by-product feeds obtained in milling wheat or other cereals, 10 per centum ad valorem; hulls of oats, barley, buckwheat, or other grains, ground or unground, 10 cents per one hundred pounds; dried beet pulp, malt sprouts, and brewers’ grains, $5 per ton; soy bean oil cake and soy bean oil-cake meal, three-tenths of 1 cent per pound; all other vegetable oil cake and oil-cake meal, not specially provided for, three-tenths of 1 cent per pound; mixed feeds, consisting of an admixture of grains or grain products with oil cake, oil-cake meal, molasses, or other feedstuffs, 10 per centum ad valorem.

It appears from tbe record that tbe involved merchandise was imported into tbe United States from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, where it was produced in tbe mill of tbe Quaker Oats Co.; that tbe Quaker Oats Co. manufactures “Quaker Oats” (commonly called “Polled oats”), “Quick Quaker Oats,” “ground oatmeal,” and “steel-cut oatmeal” for human consumption; that tbe involved merchandise [37]*37is sold for animal consumption only, and is produced, according to the testimony of appellee’s witness Thomas T. Gentels (superintendent of the mill of the Quaker Oats Co. in Peterborough, Ontario), as follows:

* * * The oats come first into the cleaning house, where they pass over a series of air separators and grading machines that remove the light oats, which are removed from the clean oats, which go on, then, to the drying pans, where they are pan-roasted; and, from pan-roasting, we impart the flavoring to the grains. After the roasting process has been completed, the oats come into the mill proper, when they go, first, to the dry oats grading system, where they are graded as to width and as to length. There are three separations, stout, slim, and large. The graded oats are then ready for hulling. They go, first to the hullers, where the hull is removed from the oats. The hullers are 48 inches in diameter. The bottom stone is stationary, the upper stone is revolving very fast. The oats feed in through the eye of the stone, and, passing through the outer rim of the stone, they up-end; and, in doing that, the top stone knocks the tip off the end of the oat. The oats and the hulled oats pass from the hullers to where we remove the oat middlings, or the Banner feed, which consists of oat middlings, and oat shorts. The Banner feed goes, from this point, in one direction, and the hulls and groats continue on. We then, with air aspiration, remove the hulls from the groats, and the unhulled oats that remain pass on then to the graders, where then the unhulled oats are removed and returned to the hullers for a second hulling. The groats are then ready for the manufacture of rolled oats or ground oatmeal. The Banner feed and the hulls then are put together, joined together, and go to the mills where they are ground into “Vim Oat Mill Feed.” [Italics ours.]

The witness further stated that the involved merchandise is prepared by mixing together approximately 78 per centum of oat hulls and 22 per centum of “oat middlings and oat shorts” and grinding the mixture, and that the “oat middlings and oat shorts [termed “Banner feed” by the Quaker Oats Co., and hereinafter referred to as such] consist of pieces of oat germs, the hair from the groats, oat bran, and small pieces of oat groats removed in the milling.”

It further appears from the record that the involved merchandise is fit for use and is used in its imported condition as animal feed; that it is used alone by dairymen as a “part of their dairy ration,” and is also used mixed with other stock feed; and, according to appellee’s witness Eric N. Boland, salesman for the Quaker Oats Co. was, at the time of the taking of testimony in this case, principally used mixed with other feedstuffs.

It is conceded by counsel for the parties that the involved merchandise is something more than oat hulls, ground or unground, and that it is, therefore, not dutiable as oat hulls at “10 cents per one hundred pounds” as assessed by the collector.

The trial court, after giving careful consideration to the evidence in the case, held that the involved “Vim Oat Mill Feed” was “in fact a stock feed”; that as it was produced by mixing definite proportions of oat hulls and “Banner feed” and grinding the mixture it [38]*38was not “obtained in milling” oats and, therefore, was not dutiable under the provisions of section 730, supra, for “by-product feeds obtained in milling” oats. In so holding, the court stated that the involved merchandise is “at least one manufacturing step removed from a by-product feed obtained in milling cereals. It is a manufactured article, produced from by-products obtained in milling cereal. The last grinding is no part of the milling of cereal.” The court concluded, however, that the merchandise was dutiable at 10 per centum ad valorem under the last provision of paragraph 730 as “mixed feeds” consisting of an admixture of “grain products with * * * other feedstuffs.” In this connection, the court said:

It cannot be disputed that oat hulls come from oat grains, and therefore would constitute a grain product, and these oat hulls would still be a grain product after having been ground. They are mixed with Banner feed and therefore the product becomes a mixed feed consisting of a grain product and a feedstuff. It would be immaterial whether the mixture was made before or after the grinding took place.

and, accordingly, sustained the protests.

It will be observed that paragraph 730, supra, provides for “byproduct feeds obtained in milling wheat or other cereals” at 10 per centum ad valorem, and that it also provides therein for “hulls of oats * * * ground or unground” at 10 cents per one hundred pounds, and for “mixed feeds, consisting of an admixture of grains or grain products with oil cake, oil-cake meal, molasses, or other feedstuffs” at 10 per centum ad valorem. [Italics ours.]

The first issue presented by counsel for the Government is whether the court was right in holding that the involved stock feed is dutiable under the last provision in paragraph 730 for “mixed feeds.”

It will be observed that the court held that as oat hulls, ground or unground, were grain products and as they were mixed with “Banner feed” and the mixture ground the resultant product consisted of an admixture of a grain product on the one hand (oat hulls) and other feedstuffs (“Banner feed”) on the other.

The difficulty with that holding of the court is that both the oat hulls and the “Banner feed” comprising the involved merchandise are grain products, that is, both are additional products or by-products produced in the milling of oats, and the statute does not provide for “mixed feeds” consisting of an admixture of grains or grain products,

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Bluebook (online)
29 C.C.P.A. 34, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-f-w-myers-co-ccpa-1941.