United States v. Neuman

6 Ct. Cust. 228, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 81
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMay 18, 1915
DocketNo. 1536
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 6 Ct. Cust. 228 (United States v. Neuman) 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. Neuman, 6 Ct. Cust. 228, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 81 (ccpa 1915).

Opinion

Martin, Judge,

delivered the opinion of tbe court:

The merchandise involved in this case was assessed with duty at the rate of 25 per cent ad valorem as cakes under paragraph 194, tariff act of 1913, that being the paragraph which imposes a duty upon “biscuits, bread, wafers, cakes, and other baked articles, and puddings,” when containing chocolate, nuts, fruit, or confectionery of any kind.

The importers protested against the assessment, claiming free entry for the merchandise under the free-list provisions for “biscuits, bread, and wafers, not specially provided for,” in paragraph 417, or alternatively an assessment of 15 per cent ad valorem under the provisions for nonenumerated manufactured articles in paragraph 385, same act.

The protest was submitted to the Board of General Appraisers and the same was sustained, the board holding that the merchandise was entitled to free entry under paragraph 417 as biscuits, bread, or wafers not specially provided for. The board did not state specifically whether in its opinion the articles in suit were biscuits, or bread, or wafers, but referred to its decision in G. A. 7654 (T. D. 35017), wherein goods which were probably somewhat similar to these, but not identical with them, were held upon testimony which is not included within the present record to be “within the description of bread, biscuit, or wafers, probably within the terms bread or biscuit.” The Government has appealed from the decision of the board.

[229]*229The following is a copy of the three paragraphs of the act of 1913 above referred to:

194. Biscuits, bread, wafers, cakes, and other baked articles, and puddings, by whatever name known, containing chocolate, nuts, fruit, or confectionery of any kind, and without regard to the component- material of chief value, twenty-five per centum ad valorem.
417. Biscuits, bread, and wafers, not specially provided for in this section.
385. That there shall be levied, collected, and paid on the importation of all raw or unmanufactured articles not enumerated or proyided for in this section, a duty of ten per centum ad valorem, and on all articles manufactured, in whole or in part, not provided for in this section, a duty of fifteen per centum ad valorem.

It may be repeated that the merchandise was assessed with duty at 25 per cent ad valorem under paragraph 194, and is claimed by the importers to be free under paragraph 417, or alternately to be dutiable at 15 per cent ad valorem under paragraph 385, all above copied.

The difficulty which the court encounters with the present record is the entire absence therefrom of any testimony concerning the characteristics of the protested articles. No testimony, either written or oral, was submitted, nor was any sample of the merchandise exhibited to the board. The record therefore discloses no facts concerning the merchandise except such as may be found in the advisory return of the appraiser and such as should be inferred from the collector’s assessment.

The following is a copy of the appraiser’s official answer to the protest, which may be assumed to be identical with the advisory return of that officer:

The merchandise consists of large honey cakes or so-called spice or ginger bread. Cakes are excepted from the provisions of paragraph 417, and in the opinion of this office the merchandise is not included within the term “ bread ” in said paragraph. It was therefore returned for duty at 25 per cent ad valorem by similitude to cakes, paragraphs 194 and 386, act of 1913.

It is difficult and unsatisfactory to pass upon the present issue witn no information concerning the character of the articles involved except such as is afforded by the foregoing return and the collector’s assessment predicated thereon. Nevertheless it may fairly be concluded from the appraiser’s statement that the goods in question did not actually contain chocolate, nuts, fruit, or confectionery of any kind, and therefore did not directly come within the descriptions contained in paragraph 194, sufra. This conclusion necessarily follows from the statement of the appraiser that the goods were “returned for duty at 25 per cent ad valorem by similitude to cakes, paragraphs 194 and 386, act of 1913,” for an assessment by similitude implies that the assessed articles fail to respond in some particulars to the dutiable provisions under which they are thus assessed, and in the present case this failure must be the absence of chocolate, nuts, [230]*230fruit, or confectionery from the assessed articles. Upon this assumption we hold with the board that the present articles should not have been assessed under paragraph 194, supra, by similitude, for Congress has expressly limited the application of that paragraph to such “biscuits, bread, wafers, cakes, and other baked articles, and puddings,” as contain “chocolate, nuts, fruit, or confectionery of any kind.” This express limitation forbids the inclusion within the paragraph by similitude of any baked articles which contain no chocolate, nuts, fruit, or confectionery of any kind. Schoenemann v. United States (119 Fed., 584); Fensterer & Ruhe v. United States (1 Ct. Cust. Appls., 93; T. D. 31110). Therefore we conclude with the board that the collector’s assessment of the merchandise under paragraph 194 was incorrect.

The question next arises whether the present merchandise was free of duty under paragraph 417, supra, as “biscuits, bread, or wafers not specially provided for, ” or was dutiable at 15 per cent ad valorem as nonenumerated manufactured articles under paragraph 385, supra, these being the alternative claims presented by the importers’ protest.

We are unable to find in the present record sufficient authority for holding 'the merchandise to be free of duty as either biscuits, bread, or wafers. As has been stated there is no sample of the merchandise before the court, nor is there any testimony at all in the record concerning the character of the articles. In the appraiser’s report appears the statement that the articles are “large honey cakes or so-called spice or ginger bread.” The statement is also therein made that in the opinion of the appraiser the merchandise is not bread under paragraph 417, supra: The report of the appraiser therefore was to the effect that the goods are sweetened cakes, and are not bread, biscuits, or wafers, and this view was approved and adopted by the collector. It is true that the appraiser states that while the articles are honey cakes they are also “so-called spice or ginger bread,” but this statement adds little or nothing to the description of the merchandise with reference to the present issue. The term “spice bread” does not appear in any American dictionary, although the term “spice cake” is defined to be a cake flavored with spice of some kind. The term “gingerbread” appears in the standard dictionaries and is uniformly defined to be a kind of sweet cake. It is never defined to be a kind of bread. The following definitions of the word “gingei’bread” sustain this statement:

Century Dictionary:

A kind of sweet cake flavored with ginger. It is often made in fanciful shapes. The name was also formerly given to a kind of white bread containing nuts, spices, and rose water.

[231]*231Worcester’s Dictionary:

A sweet cake spiced with ginger.

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6 Ct. Cust. 228, 1915 CCPA LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-neuman-ccpa-1915.