United States v. Louis Wolf & Co.

17 C.C.P.A. 310, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 69
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 25, 1929
DocketNo. 3200
StatusPublished

This text of 17 C.C.P.A. 310 (United States v. Louis Wolf & 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. Louis Wolf & Co., 17 C.C.P.A. 310, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 69 (ccpa 1929).

Opinion

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The issue at bar involves the proper classification of merchandise classified as toys by the collector and covered by two protests, one by Louis Wolf & Co. (Inc.) and the other by W. J. Byrnes & Co., of New York.

The articles of importation before the court below and, with one exception, before this court, are the subject matter of two protests, the first one covering:

Exhibit 1, “Bull board.”
Exhibit 2, “The children’s railroad,” or “A box of puzzles.”
Exhibit 3, “Ring my nose.”
Exhibit 4, “Steeplechase.”
Exhibit 5, “Halloween ring toss.”

As to Exhibit 2 of this protest there is no issue here. The court below overruled the protest as to this item and there was no cross appeal filed.

In the second protest the exhibits are:

Exhibit 1, “Coasting.”
Exhibit 2, “Ludo and royal ludo.”
Exhibit 3, “Up and down, the new ladder game.”
Exhibit 4, “Trains of the world.”

As to the first protest: Exhibit 1, “Bull board,” consists of 12 squares on a paper-box lid about 10 by 12 inches in size. Ten of the squares are numbered from 1 to 10. On each of the two remaining squares is a colored picture of the head of a bull. The numbers are white on a blue background. Accompanying the board are ten paper disks about one-eighth of an inch in thickness and two inches in diameter. Exhibit 5 is a box containing a flat cardboard image of a pumpkin, on one side of which is a picture of a face, hobgoblin in character, with a hooked nose, apparently made of papier-máché, attached thereto. There are also two metal hooks on the chin. Accompanying same are seven thin, small, paper rings in different [312]*312colors, designed to be thrown at the nose and hooks. The box is labeled “Spear’s Halloween Ring Toss.” Below the nose is a number 10 and below the hooks are numbers 5 and 3, respectively. The numbers ringed are counted until the game ends at 100. Exhibit 4, “Steeplechase,” consists of a folding piece of cardboard about 8 by 13 inches upon which is a circular race track containing numbers on the inner and outer margins of same. Accompanying the board are four small metal horses with riders, and numbers on small pasteboard cards ranging from one to four. The box also contains a cheap wooden die. There are no rules accompanying the game, but the record shows that the horses are advanced on the race track as the numbers are obtained by shaking the die. Exhibit 3 is substantially the same as Exhibit 5 except it is called “Ring my nose,” and instead of the board being a pumpkin face, it is a clown face with two additional hooks for the rings.

In the second protest: Exhibit 1, “Coasting,” is a folding piece of cardboard 12 by 15 inches with a winter scene of trees, snow, birds, children on sleds, etc., and zigzagging across the picture is a coasting snow trail divided into spaces about 1 inch square and numbered from 1 to 75. Accompanying the board is a pair of dice and five •small metal sleds upon each of which is seated a child. By shaking the dice the sleds containing the children are advanced on the board. Exhibit 2, “Ludo and royal ludo,” is played with a board with circles, characters, and squares on the paper face thereof. The board is evidently of paper, and folds. From the “rules of the game” it ■appears that a die or dice accompanied the exhibit, although none is ■at bar. By throwing the die or dice, small buttonlike disks known as “men” (which are not at bar) are moved in and out of “prison” and brought back “home” again. The game of royal ludo is slightly more complicated. Exhibit 3, “Up and down, the new ladder game,” is a folding paper board upon the face of which are a great many numbers located in squares into which the board is evenly divided. There are also a number of pictures, grotesque and clownish in appearance, scattered about on the face of the board. A pair of dice and small metal children and animals accompany the board for the purpose of being moved on the numbers in accordance with the numbers obtained by shaking the dice. The numbers range from 1 to 130 and you go “up and down” the ladder by going from number 1 to 130 and back to number 1. Exhibit 4, “Trains of the world,” consists of cardboard about 7 by 8 inches, from the face of which have been cut out 8 diamond-shaped sections. The cut-out portions are numbered. When the numbered portions are put back in the places from which taken, the completed picture on the face of the card is [313]*313shown. It is a very simple, childish puzzle akin to a simple jig-saw puzzle.

Each of the above exhibits, except “Ludo and royal ludo,” is contained in a box highly colored, upon which are pictures of interest to children, and all of them have the appearance of Christmas or Halloween merchandise. The ludo game is not contained in a box, as it appears here, but the absence of the dice and the “men” suggest that a box probably at one time accompanied the importation. The ludo board is of-simple and cheap construction and composition.

The United States Customs Court, except as to Exhibit 2 in the first protest, sustained the protests of importers and held the merchandise to be dutiable at 36 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1313 as manufactures of which paper is the component material of chief value.

The Government urges here that this action on the part of the court below was erroneous, if for no other reason, because the importers failed to show, and the evidence as a whole, including the samples in the case, fails to show what the component material of chief value is. ,

In view of the fact that most of the articles consist of several different materials, we are inclined to agree with the view expressed by the Government, but since we must disagree with the court below on its decision of the more important question involved in the case, to the effect that the merchandise was not toys, we regard it as important to decide and discuss this phase of the case.

The trial court, in holding that the articles were not toys, said:

Unquestionably, with the exception possibly of the puzzle, Exhibit 2, “The children’s railroad,” these games “were not intended and designed for the amusement of children only” within the rule enunciated in the Illfelder case, 1 Ct. Cust. Appls. 109, T. D. 31116. Amusement or interest may be derived from these articles, but it is not solely children’s amusement. The “amusement of children only” referred to in the Illf elder case, supra, is that which a child obtains from playing with some trifling article, which will give him pleasure without necessitating the exercise of ability or skill to obtain amusement therefrom.
% ‡ s|i ‡ #
These articles, with the exception of the puzzle, would also amuse the mature mind. They do not fall, either in fact or in law, within the classification of toys, as that term has been defined by the courts.
With the rule in the Illfelder case as a standard all these toy questions become matters of fact, determined by the testimony and an inspection of the exhibits.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Illfelder v. United States
1 Ct. Cust. 109 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1910)
United States v. Field
12 Ct. Cust. 543 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1925)
United States v. Strauss
13 Ct. Cust. 167 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1925)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 C.C.P.A. 310, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-louis-wolf-co-ccpa-1929.