United States v. General Bakelite Corp.

13 Ct. Cust. 607, 1926 CCPA LEXIS 53
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 13, 1926
DocketNo. 2600
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 13 Ct. Cust. 607 (United States v. General Bakelite Corp.) 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. General Bakelite Corp., 13 Ct. Cust. 607, 1926 CCPA LEXIS 53 (ccpa 1926).

Opinion

Hatfield, Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of tbe court:

This appeal from a judgment of tbe Board of General Appraisers involves the construction of paragraphs 27 and 1549 of the Tariff Act of 1922. Tbe pertinent part of paragraph 27reads as-follows:

Par. 27. * * * anthracene having a purity of 30 per centum or more, carbazole having a purity of 65 per centum or more, metacresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more, naphthalene which after the removal of all water present has a solidifying point of seventy-nine degrees centigrade or above, orthocresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more, paracresol having a purity of 90 per centum or more; all the foregoing products in this paragraph whether obtained, derived, or manufactured from coal tar or other source; all distillates of coal tar, blast-furnace tar, oil-gas tar, and water-gas tar, which on being subject to distillation yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids equal to or more than 6 per centum of the original distillate or which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion distilling below two hundred and fifteen degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids equal to or more than 76 per centum of the original distillate; all similar products by whatever name known, which are obtained, derived, or manufactured in whole or in part from any of the products provided for in this paragraph, or from any of the products provided for in paragraph 1549; all mixtures, including solutions, consisting in whole or in part of any of the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, except sheep dip and medicinal soaps; all the foregoing products provided for in this paragraph, not colors, dyes, or stains, color acids, color bases, color lakes, leuco-compounds, indoxyl, indoxyl compounds, ink powders, photographic chemicals, medicináis, synthetic aromatic or odoriferous chemicals, synthetic resinlike products, synthetic tanning materials, or explosives, and not specially provided for in paragraph 28 or 16j9, 40 per centum ad valorem based upon the American selling price (as defined in subdivision (f) of section 402, Title IV) of any similar competitive article manufactured or produced in the United States, and 7 cents per pound: * * * (Italics ours.)

Paragraph 1549 reads as follows:

Par. 1549. Coal-tar products: Acenaphthene, anthracene having a purity of less than 30 per centum, benzene, carbazole having a purity of less than 65 per centum, cumene, cymene, fluorene, methylanthracene, methylnaphthalene, naphthalene which after the removal of all the water present has a solidifying point less than seventy-nine degrees centigrade, pyridine, toluene, xylene, dead or creosote oil, anthracene oil, pitch of coal tar, pitch of blast-furnace tar, pitch of oil-gas tar, pitch of water-gas tar, crude coal tar, crude blast-furnace tar crude oil-gas tar, crude water-gas tar, all other distillates of any of these tars which on being subjected to distillation yield in the portion distilling below one hundred and ninety degrees centigrade a quantity of tar acids less than 6 per centum of the original distillate, all mixtures of any of these distillates and any of the foregoing pitches, and all other materials or products that are found naturally in coal tar, whether produced or obtained from coal tar or other source, and not specially provided for in paragraph 27 or 28 of Title I of this Act. (Italics ours.)

[609]*609The case was submitted to the Board of General Appraisers upon the following stipulation:

* * * It is hereby stipulated and agreed between the Assistant Attorney General for the United States and counsel for the importer as follows:
That the merchandise described upon the invoice as three drums, coal-tar product, coal-tar distillate, 260 gallons at 3 shillings 8 pence per gallon and subject of this protest is a mixture of coal-tar pitch and a coal-tar cresylic-acid distillate:
That the coal-tar pitch constituent of the merchandise in question is a residue (not a distillate) obtained in the distillation of coal tar; that this residue was mixed with the coal-tar cresylic-acid distillate, and constitutes a solution to the extent that the soluble portion of the pitch reaches the state of solution with the distillate:
That it is impossible physically to have a mixture of coal-tar pitch and coal-tar distillate in which the pitch is not, to some extent, mixed to the point of solution with the distillate.
It is further stipulated and agreed that the above-entitled case may be submitted for decision upon the above stipulation, together with the appraiser’s report, analysis, and all the papers in the case.
It is further stipulated and agreed that the counsel for the importers may have 15 days for filing brief, and the Assistant Attorney General may have 30 days for reply. * * *

The appraiser’s report referred to in the stipulation reads as follows:

* * * The merchandise consists of a solution composed of a mixture of coal-tar pitch and a coal-tar cresylic-acid distillate, which distillate on distillation yields more than 75% of tar acids distilling below 215° C. and less than 5% of tar aeids distilling below 190° C.
A sample of the merchandise was admitted to the U. S. chemist, who reports that the sample consists of 7.0% water, 70.0% coal-tar acids, and 23.0% of pitch, and when subjected to distillation yields less than 5.0% tar acids distilling below 190° C. and less than 75.0% below 215° C.; but when the cresylic-acid distillate portion was separated from the pitch and distilled alone it yielded less than 5% of tar acids distilling below 190° C. and more than 75% of tar acids distilling below 215° C.
It is the contention of this office that the provision in paragraph 1549 for “all mixtures of any of these distillates and any of the foregoing pitches” is qualified by the provision “not specially provided for in' paragraph 27.” As this is a solution composed of a mixture of coal-tar pitch and a cresylic-acid distillate, which distillate is specially provided for in paragraph 27 as distilling, below 215° C., more than 75% of tar acids, it is removed from the provision of paragraph 1549 by virtue of the n. s. p. f. clause in said paragraph. Note also that solutions are not provided for in 1549. See G. A. 8736 (T. D. 39992) holding cresylic-acid distilling below 190° C. a quantity of tar acid less than 5% of the original distillate and more than 75% of tar acid distilling below 215° C. dutiable under paragraph 27. * * *

It appears from tbe appraiser’s report that the merchandise consists of a solution composed of a “mixture of coal-tar pitch and cre-sylic-acid distillate.” The stipulation contains the statement that the [610]

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Related

Bakelite Corp. v. United States
16 Ct. Cust. 378 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1928)

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Bluebook (online)
13 Ct. Cust. 607, 1926 CCPA LEXIS 53, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-general-bakelite-corp-ccpa-1926.