United States v. Julian Roberts, Inc.

23 C.C.P.A. 300, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 10
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 1936
DocketNo. 3874
StatusPublished

This text of 23 C.C.P.A. 300 (United States v. Julian Roberts, Inc.) 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. Julian Roberts, Inc., 23 C.C.P.A. 300, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 10 (ccpa 1936).

Opinion

Garrett, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal involves controversies which grew out of importations of merchandise made in the years 1927 and 1929 while the Tariff Act of 1922 was in effect. The merchandise is described in the opinion of the trial court as follows:

These [the involved] items are represented by exhibits 1 and 2, which are two bowl-shaped articles of glass colored or painted red. Each has a flattened bottom, and an upper edge or rim slightly less in diameter than the body of the bowl. Each bowl has a glass cover with a knob on top for handling purposes, fitting over the upper rim. Exhibit 1 is about 5 inches in diameter at its greatest, breadth. Including the knob on top of the cover it is about 2% inches deep at its greatest depth. Without the knob it is two inches deep. Exhibit 2 is similar except its diameter is less and its height slightly greater than exhibit 1. The-testimony as to each sample is that its capacity is “less than one-quarter pint.”

To the above it may be added that, as later stated by the trial court, it was agreed by counsel for the respective parties at the trial that the exhibits are composed of flint, lead or lime glass.

No case involving classification, under the Tariff Act of 1922, of merchandise of the precise kind here involved has heretofore reached this court, nor, so far as we are advised, has any other such case been before the United States Customs Court. Similar merchandise was involved in the case of United States v. Marshall Field & Co., 19 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 331, T. D. 45483, but that case arose under the Tariff Act of 1930, the glass articles paragraphs of which differ, in a number of material respects, both as to text and arrangement, from the glass articles paragraphs of the 1922 act.

In that case, as presented to us, the issue rested solely between that part of paragraph 218 (e) of the Tariff Act of 1930 which provides for “* * * jars * * * used or designed to be used as containers of * * * talcum powder”, and that part of paragraph 218 (f) of said act which provides for—

* * * all articles of every description not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of glass * * * colored * * * painted, printed in any manner * * * or decorated or ornamented in any manner * * *.

There the collector’s classification was under the quoted language of paragraph 218 (e), but the United States Customs Court sustained a claim of the importer based upon the quoted language of paragraph 218 (f). This court reversed the decision of the trial court upon the ground that the evidence presented was not sufficient to overcome the presumption of correctness attaching to the collector’s classification.

We have made the foregoing allusion to the Marshall Field <& Co. case, supra, thus early in this opinion because of certain arguments [302]*302based upon it, made before us on bebalf of appellees in the instant case, to which arguments later allusion will be made.

The two appellees here made importations of merchandise of the kind described in that part of the opinion of the trial court quoted supra. The collector classified it under the language of paragraph 218 of the Tariff Act of 1922 reading:

Par. 218. * * * all articles of every description not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of glass or paste, or combinations of glass; and paste, blown or partly blown in the mold or otherwise, or colored, cut, engraved, etched, frosted, gilded, ground * * * painted, printed in any manner, sand-blasted,' silvered, stained, or decorated or ornamented in any manner, whether filled or unfilled, or whether their contents be dutiable or free, 55 per centum ad valorem * * *.

Each importer protested, the one claim finally relied upon by each being for classification under paragraph 217 of the Tariff Act of 1922 reading:

Par. 217. Plain green or colored, molded or pressed, and flint, lime, or lead glass bottles, vials, jars, and covered or uncovered demijohns, and carboys, any of the foregoing, filled or unfilled, not specially provided for, and whether their contents be dutiable or free (except such as contain merchandise subject to an ad valorem rate of duty, or to a rate of duty based in whole or in part upon the value thereof, which shall be dutiable at the rate applicable to their contents), shall pay duty as follows: If holding more than one pint, 1 cent per pound; if holding not more than one pint and not less than one-fourth of a pint, 1% cents per pound; if holding less than one-fourth of a pint, 50 cents per gross: Provided, That the terms “bottles,” “vials,” “jars,” “demijohns,” and “carboys,” as used herein, shall be restricted to such articles yvhen suitable for use and of the character ordinarily employed for the holding or transportation of merchandise, and not as appliances or implements in chemical or other operations, and shall not include bottles for table service and thermostatic bottles.

The cases were consolidated for trial, and judgment was entered sustaining the claim under said paragraph 217. The Government took the instant appeal to this court and here contends, in substance, that ■appellees’ claim is not supported by the evidence, urging particularly ■that appellees failed to establish by competent evidence that Exhibits 1 and 2 are articles suitable for use and of the character ordinarily employed for the holding and transportation of merchandise.

On behalf of appellees much attention has been given our decision in the Marshall Field & Co. case, supra. It is pointed out that the collector’s classification here is under language of the 1922 act substantially the same as that in the 1930 act under which the importer there claimed and lost, and it is argued, in effect, that the collector’s classifications under the respective acts are inconsistent, and that the Government is inconsistent in its efforts to sustain them.

We do not think this contention of inconsistency tenable when all pertinent provisions of the two acts are correctly considered.

It must be remembered that the collector’s classification in the instant case was made under the 1922 act a number of years before [303]*303the classification in the Marshall Field & Co. case, supra, was made under the 1930 act, and that the latter act differed materially, upon matters here pertinent, from the former act.

In no paragraph of the 1922 act was there provision for talcum powder containers expressed in the language found in the 1930 act whereunder the classification was made in the Marshall Field & Co. case, supra, to wit “* * * jars, wholly or in chief value of glass, of the character used or designed to be used as containers of * * * talcum powder * * Therefore, in classifying such articles under the Tariff Act of 1922, the collector of necessity had to invoke that language of the act which he believed .most aptly covered them, and it does not follow that, because they were not classifiable under 218 (f) of the Tariff Act of 1930, which seemingly made specific provision for them in paragraph 218 (e), they were excluded from language in paragraph 218 of the Tariff Act of 1922 similar to that of 218 (f) of the 1930 act, the 1922 act not having elsewhere contained language specifically covering them.

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23 C.C.P.A. 300, 1936 CCPA LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-julian-roberts-inc-ccpa-1936.