United States v. Foochow Importing Co.

18 C.C.P.A. 313, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 2
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 21, 1931
DocketNo. 3335
StatusPublished

This text of 18 C.C.P.A. 313 (United States v. Foochow Importing 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. Foochow Importing Co., 18 C.C.P.A. 313, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 2 (ccpa 1931).

Opinions

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Appellee imported a shipment of articles from Japan. They appear to be known there and in China as “mokugyos.” In the United States they are sold as “temple blocks.” The goods were entered at the port of San Francisco.

[314]*314The collector classified and assessed them for duty as musical instruments under that portion of paragraph 1443 of the Tariff Act of 1922 which reads:

Par. 1443. Musical instruments and parts thereof, not specially provided for, * * * 40 per centum ad valorem, * * *.

Appellee protested this classification, claiming the merchandise to be dutiable at 33% per centum under paragraph 410, or as “wood not further advanced than cut into blocks * * * ” at 10 per centum under paragraph 402, and also further claiming in the alternative under paragraph 1459, the “catchall” or “basket” clause of the law. The ■Customs Court sustained the protest and held them dutiable at 33% per centum under paragraph 410, the pertinent portion of which reads:

Par. 410. * * * Manufactures of wood * * * or of which wood * * * is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for, 33% per centum ad valorem.

The Government appealed from the judgment, and so brings the matter before us. Appellee made no oral argument but submitted on brief.

We regard the issue as being between paragraphs 1443 and 410, .above quoted, and will not further consider appellee’s alternative ■claims. They do not appear to be seriously pressed.

As a part of the record in the case there was filed collective Exhibit 1, consisting of five samples of the merchandise. These comprise what, we understand from the testimony, is known as a “set.” Each 'individual article appears to be carved or cut from a single piece of hardwood arid’is, as stated by the Customs Court, shaped somewhat .like a sleigh bell. Each is hollowed and divided at the bottom and ■up the two sides or ends, the “split” or “crack” widening toward its upper terminations. Each has a handle painted black. The body is painted red and there are gilded carvings upon it. They are curvilinear in formation and of varying sizes, the largest being, at the widest point, about 7 inches in diameter one wa3r and 6 inches the other, while the smallest is about 4 by 3. When used as a set they are said to be usually suspended on a horizontal bar (illustrated by a pencil drawing filed as Exhibit 2) at the apex of a tripod, and the Government brief alleges that when so suspended and “struck by a wooden hammer, they emit a sound to produce certain kinds of musical tones and effects.”

There was filed as Exhibit 3 what is designated as section 4 of a “Musical Instrument Catalogue — Drums and Drummers’ Goods.” •On page 65 of this catalogue under the heading “Temple Blocks,” ' we find the following:

[315]*315No. 1003 — 4-inch_$3. 00

No. 1004 — 4%-inch-l_ 3. 50

No. 1005 — 5%-inch_ 4. 00

No. 1006 — 6-inch_ 4. 50

No. 1007 — 6%-inch_ 5. 00

No. 16 — Set of 5, tuned with stand and holders_ 20. 00

On page 64 there is a picture of a table or shelf, held by rods above, a drum to which the rods are, attached, having what appears to be a set of five temple blocks arranged in order of size, and some other attachments. Immediately below the picture appear the words “Leedy Trap Table,” and lower in the column under the head “Leedy Trap Holders to Fit the Above Table” appears the line:

No. 245 — Temple block holders, $0.75

It was established by a Chinese merchant, named Loo Lum, called as .a witness by appellee, that the articles in question are used in Chinese worship to wake up the idol and that only one was used at a time in the temple where he visited; that “Chinese never buy these for music”; that he does not buy or sell them as Chinese musical instruments and knows of no one who does; that they are sold as “temple blocks”; that one of his customers' was a musical house, Sherman, Clay & Co., and that he sold to a manufacturing company in Indianapolis, Ind.; that he had never been whore white orchestras used them; that they were not used in Chinese orchestras; that he sells them to almost anybody who comes into his store to buy them; that he sells them, “sometimes 5; some people get 1, some 2, different sizes ”; that they are used also for ornaments in houses and in windows.

On cross-examination he stated that he had seen them in three American houses “where they live” and “some.put in store’s window,” and that during the time he had been selling them he had seen “one or two in temple houses where the idols are.” He also said that they were, in sets of five, hung on a steel or other kind of bar and hit with a wooden mallet, and that some people use them for dinner calls; that he preferred to sell, and did sell, the articles in a “regular way,” in sets of five, but would sell a single article at an advanced price; that his sales to Sherman, Clay & Co. were at wholesale as temple blocks, “a couple of sets at a time,” and that he had been selling to that company about two or three years.

Another witness called on behalf of appellee was Charles F. Mitchell, who testified that he had played musical instruments such as “drums and traps, saxophone, xylophone, and piano,” having joined the Musicians’ Union in 1910 and having played professionally with numerous bands, naming five. His last playing seems to have been in January, 1923. The witness stated that during the time he was playing he came in contact with articles like collective Exhibit 1 and [316]*316for that “we call them part of our traps”; that is, orchestra “traps” for a trap drummer.

The witness does not appear to have used articles like the ones involved, but states that since 1923 he has observed them in use “many times” by orchestras “at theaters and places where orchestras were playing”; that they “are used in connection with presenting the full orchestral piece they are playing * * * where necessary to fill out the composition * * * just the same as a drum or as cymbals”; that they are used for “effects. * * * Noises, effects, the same’as a crash in part of a musical composition.”

Q. What effects do you mean? — A. The effect that you would use those for in an orchestra would be as the old wood block that we had to imitate a horse in coming up the street in the distance, and gradually going away again. Also you would use them to fill in certain, what we call in the orchestra, fake notes. * * * That is all the uses you have for them in the composition that is arranged during the piece. If the piece called for them in the composition, you fill in that particular note as it is called for on your music sheet.

And on cross-examination be said:

They are used for the effect, to carry out the certain ideas the composer had, to make that assembled piece. When he composes the orchestration of this musical composition that he has, he puts in certain notes for the drummers to bring out to get his idea. For instance, if it was an Indian play, a play that would want to have the. audience believe it was an Indian composition, he would have similar items as this to carry out that; as we call it the musical effect.
Q. So that one hearing that can visualize what was in the mind of the composer? — A. Yes.
Q.

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Bluebook (online)
18 C.C.P.A. 313, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-foochow-importing-co-ccpa-1931.