United States v. J. E. Bernard & Co.

33 C.C.P.A. 166, 1946 CCPA LEXIS 380
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 30, 1946
DocketNo. 4500
StatusPublished

This text of 33 C.C.P.A. 166 (United States v. J. E. Bernard & 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. J. E. Bernard & Co., 33 C.C.P.A. 166, 1946 CCPA LEXIS 380 (ccpa 1946).

Opinions

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The United States has here appealed from the judgment of the United States Customs Court, Third Division (C. D. 887), which sustained the importer’s protest against the collector’s classification of a work of art, a painting in oil, under paragraph 1547 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930 and his assessment of duty thereon at 15 per centum ad valorem under said provision as modified by the trade agreement with the United Kingdom, T. D. 49753. The importer claimed the merchandise to be free of duty under paragraph 1807 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The facts of the case are not in dispute. The oil painting is an original work of art by the well and favorably known painter, Alfred Pellan, and is called “Nature Morte au Chevalet.” The testimony of Harold B. Seldon, examiner of merchandise at the port of Chicago, and Charles S. Downs, advertising manager for the Abbott Laboratories, the consignee of the imported merchandise, was taken before the trial court. Their testimony shows that the painting is an original oil painting and considered to be a work of art and was created solely for its aesthetic value but was imported for the sole purpose of being reproduced as a cover page on a magazine published by Abbott Laboratories, who are engaged in the manufacture of chemicals and medicináis and who advertise their products in said magazine. The magazine is sent to physicians.

The painting is in a number of bright colors, showing an easel and paint palette standing in front of a table upon which are a fruit bowl and a part of a tea set and several items of fruit, apparently mostly apples. Judging from its reproduction on the magazine, it is of pleasing and attractive appearance and clearly shows a rough and somewhat uneven oil paint characteristic.

[168]*168Paragraphs 1547 and 1807 of the Tariff Act of 1930 read as follows:

Par. 1547. (a) Works of art, .including (1) paintings in oil or water colors, pastels, pen and ink drawings, and copies, replicas, or reproductions of any of the same, (2) statuary, sculptures, or copies, replicas, or reproductions thereof, valued at not less than $2.50, and (3) etchings and engravings, all the foregoing, not specially provided for, 20 per centum ad valorem.
(b) Paintings in oil, mineral, water, or other colors, pastels, and drawings and sketches in pen and ink, pencil, or water color, any of the foregoing (whether or not works of art) suitable as designs for use in the manufacture of textiles, floor coverings, wall paper, or wall coverings, 20 per centum ad valorem.
Par. 1807. Original paintings in oil, mineral, water, or other colors, pastels, original drawings and sketches in pen, ink, pencil, or water colors, artists’ proof etchings unbound, and engravings and woodcuts unbound, original sculptures or statuary, including not more than two replicas or reproductions of the same; but the terms “sculpture” and “statuary” as used in this paragraph shall be understood to include professional productions of sculptors only, whether in round or in relief, in bronze, marble, stone, terra cotta, ivory, wood, or metal, or whether cut, carved, or otherwise wrought by hand from the solid block or mass of marble, stone or alabaster, or from metal, or cast in bronze or other metal or substance, or from wax or plaster, made as the professional productions of sculptors only; and the words “painting,” “drawing,” “sketch,” “sculpture,” and “statuary” as used in this paragraph shall not be understood to include any articles of utility or for industrial use, nor such as are made wholly or in part by stenciling or any other mechanical process; and the words “etchings,” “engravings,” and “woodcuts” as used in this paragraph shall be understood to include only such as are printed by hand from plates or blocks etched or engraved with hand tools and not such as are printed from plates or blocks etched or engraved by photochemical or other mechanical process. [Italicized words new in the 1930 act.]

Paragraph. 1547 (a) in the trade agreement is identical with paragraph 1547 (a), sufra, except that the rate of duty is reduced from 20 per centum ad valorem to 15 per centum ad valorem.

The sole question presented in this appeal is whether or not an original oil painting, produced abroad by an artist to appeal to the aesthetic sense and not for utilitarian or industrial purposes, is excluded from the free-list provision of paragraph 1807 on account of the limiting provision, “shall not be understood to include any articles of utility or for industrial use,” by reason of the fact that it was con-cededly purchased and imported for the sole purpose of being reproduced and used as the front cover of a magazine as hereinbefore stated.

Paragraph 1704 of the Tariff Act of 1922, the predecessor of paragraph 1807 of the Tariff Act of 1930, was modified by Congress, in respects with which we are here concerned, by the addition of the words, “drawing” and “sketch,” and the term, “or for industrial use.” The particular limiting clause with which we are here concerned, in the 1922 act, read: “and the words ‘painting’ and ‘sculpture’ and ‘statuary’ as used in this paragraph shall not be understood to include any articles of utility.”

The trial court by a majority, one judge dissenting, expressly reversed its former holding, involving the issue here presented, in [169]*169American Colortype Co. v. United States, 2 Cust. Ct. 132, C. D. 107, where it had held, under circumstances like those at bar, that the term “for industrial use” excluded from the free list a painting similar to that at bar.

The majority of the trial court in the instant case held that the painting had not been created or designed for industrial use or utilitarian use and that the mere fact that it had been imported for industrial use was not a controlling consideration, relying for supporting authority upon this court’s decision in the case of Progressive Fine Arts Co. v. United States, 18 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 306, T. D. 44506, wherein this court held that the classification of a painting under the free-list provision of paragraph 1704 of the Tariff Act of 1922 was not barred by the term, “any articles of utility,” and that the controlling fact to be determined was what the merchandise actually was at the time of importation and not its intended use when imported.

We are of the opinion that the trial court erred in its holding that the classification by the collector was erroneous.

Our decision in the Progressive Fine Arts case, supra, has no bearing upon the instant issue because the pertinent provisions of the Tariff Act of 1922 did not contain the stated limiting provision, “or for industrial use,” found in paragraph 1807 of the 1930 act. There we held that the question as to whether or not a thing was an article of utility did not depend upon the intent of the importer, but we did not have before us the question as to whether or not the controverted words, “or for industrial use,” in the later act operates to exclude from the free-list paragraph the painting at bar.

We think the trial court’s decision in the American Colortype Co. case, supra, was sound and should have been followed by it in the instant case. It pointed out the legislative history of paragraph 1807, supra,

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Related

American Colortype Co. v. United States
2 Cust. Ct. 132 (U.S. Customs Court, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
33 C.C.P.A. 166, 1946 CCPA LEXIS 380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-j-e-bernard-co-ccpa-1946.