United States v. J. A. Freeman & Son

29 C.C.P.A. 103, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 152
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 9, 1941
DocketNo. 4335
StatusPublished

This text of 29 C.C.P.A. 103 (United States v. J. A. Freeman & Son) 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. J. A. Freeman & Son, 29 C.C.P.A. 103, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 152 (ccpa 1941).

Opinion

Jackson, Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of the court:

The importer, appellee here, brought suit against the United States in the United States Customs Court to recover certain customs [105]*105duties alleged to Lave been erroneously exacted by the collector of customs at the port of Portland, Oreg., upon an importation of certain steel balls, roller bearings, chains, rivets, bolts and nuts.

The merchandise was classified and assessed for duty under several paragraphs of title I of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The' steel balls and roller bearings were classified and assessed with duty under paragraph 321 which reads as follows:

Pah. 321. Antifriction balls and rollers, metal balls and rollers commonly used in ball or roller bearings, metal ball or roller bearings, and parts thereof, whether finished or unfinished, for whatever use intended, 10 cents per pound and 45 per centum ad valorem.

The chains were classified and assessed with duty at 35 per centum ■ ad valorem under that portion of paragraph 329 which is as follows:

Par. 329. * * * chains of iron or steel, used for the transmission of power, of not more than two-inch pitch and containing more than three parts per pitch, and parts thereof, finished or unfinished, 40 per centum ad valorem; all other chains used for the transmission of power and parts thereof, 35 per centum ad valorem; * * *

The rivets were classified and assessed with duty under that portion of paragraph 332 reading as follows:

Par. 332. * * * rivets of iron or steel, not specially provided for, 1 cent per pound.

The bolts and nuts were classified and assessed with duty at 1 cent per pound under paragraph 330, reading as follows:

Par. 330. Nuts, nut blanks and washers, of wrought iron or steel, six-tenths of 1 cent per pound; bolts, with or without threads or nuts, and bolt blanks, of iron or steel, 1 cent per pound; spiral nut locks, and lock washers, of iron or steel, 35 per centum ad valorem.

It was claimed by the importer that the merchandise was entitled to free entry under paragraph 1604 of the said act, which reads:

Par. 1604. Agricultural implements: Plows, tooth or disk harrows, headers, harvesters, reapers, agricultural drills and planters, mowers, horserakes, cultivators, thrashing machines, cotton gins, machinery for use in the manufacture of sugar, wagons and carts, cream separators valued at not more than $50 each, and all other agricultural implements of any kind or description, not specially provided for, whether in whole or in parts, including repair parts: Provided, That no article specified by name in Title I shall be free of duty under this paragraph.

The suit was tried in the city of Portland, Oreg. One witness, who was the manager and a member of the plaintiff firm, testified in its behalf. The government submitted no evidence. After trial the case was duly submitted and the court thereafter rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, sustaining the protest. From the judgment this appeal was taken. There was no appearance here for appellee by brief or counsel.

All of the involved items of merchandise were imported to be used as parts of agricultural implements (mowers), so that the issue before [106]*106us is whether or not the imported articles are, on the record here, properly dutiable as was held by the collector by reason of the final clause of paragraph 1604, supra, “Provided, That no article specified by name in Title I shall be free of duty under this paragraph.”

The trial court in its decision stated as follows:

Upon this record we find as a matter of fact that while the merchandise at bar may be described by the terms used by the appraiser, nevertheless they are all parts or repair parts of mowers and as such are eo nomine accorded free entry under said paragraph 1604. To hold, as the Government contends, that these parts are excluded from the benefits of said paragraph 1604 by virtue of the proviso in said paragraph, would defeat the plain intent of the Congress. Practically all of the metal parts of the various agricultural implements specifically mentioned in paragraph 1604 are eo nomine provided for in title I of the Tariff Act of 1930.

and on the authority of the case of United States v. American Express Co., 12 Ct. Cust. Appls. 483, T. D. 40693, held the involved merchandise to be properly entitled to free entry under said paragraph 1604 as parts of mowers.

In that case, the imported articles and their use were set out in the opinion of this court as follows:

The articles imported are made of metal, and are in the form of adjustable plates about 7 inches in length by 3 inches in width and approximately one-fourth inch in thickness, having a series of parallel sharp cutting edges on one side, with V-shaped grooves, or channels, between these parallel blades. These articles are used exclusively as parts of sugar-making machinery. As so used, they are adjusted on the inner surface of a cylindrical revolving drum. Beets are fed into this drum through a hopper, and by a mechanical device, held against this revolving drum; as it revolves, long, V-shaped slices of the beet substance, known as cossettes, are removed from the beets in the drum by the action of the knives and channels in the plates above mentioned, and discharged into the batteries. It is shown by the testimony that the articles of importation thus used are essential to beet-sugar-making machinery, and perform not only the function of cutting the beets into shreds or slices, but also that of forming these shreds, or pieces, of beet substance, into a form where the following diffusion processes will more readily take place.

They bad been classified for duty by tbe collector under tbe provision for “all other cutting knives used in power or band machines” at 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 366 of tbe Tariff Act of 1922, and were claimed by tbe importer to be free of duty under paragraph 1504 of that act which is identical to paragraph 1604 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

In that case the court pointed out that under paragraph 391 of the tariff act of October 3, 1913, all agricultural implements “whether specifically mentioned herein or not” were free of duty. The same duty free status also applied whether the articles imported were “in whole or in parts, including repair parts.” Paragraph 1504 of the act of 1922 narrowed the scope of the free-list provisions of said paragraph 391 in that it made dutiable any article that would have been [107]*107free of duty under said paragraph 391 if it were specified by name in the dutiable list of the Tariff Act of 1922. Paragraph 1604 of the said act of 1930 does likewise.

This court in the American Express Co. case, supra, merely held that the language relied upon by the government to sustain the collector’s classification was not a specific or eo nomine designation of the involved merchandise, stating:

Such language does not constitute a specific or en nomine designation of the articles of importation here.

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Related

United States v. American Express Co.
12 Ct. Cust. 483 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1925)

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Bluebook (online)
29 C.C.P.A. 103, 1941 CCPA LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-j-a-freeman-son-ccpa-1941.