United States v. Schade

16 Ct. Cust. 366, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 97
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 1928
DocketNo. 3072
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 16 Ct. Cust. 366 (United States v. Schade) 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. Schade, 16 Ct. Cust. 366, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 97 (ccpa 1928).

Opinion

Hatfield, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Merchandise, described in the invoice as “cod liver oil cake meal” and bought and sold in the trade of the United States as “cod-liver oil-cake meal” and sometimes as “cod-liver meal” and “cod-liver oil meal,” was assessed for duty by the collector at the port of Norfolk, Va., at 20 per centum ad valorem as a nonenumerated manufactured article under paragraph 1459 of the Tariff Act of 1922, which reads as follows:

Par. 1459. That there shall be levied, collected, and paid on the importation of all raw or unmanufactured articles not enumerated or provided for, a duty of [367]*36710 per centum ad valorem, and on all articles manufactured, in whole or in part, not specifically provided for, a duty of 20 per centum ad valorem.

The provisions for free entry, under which the importer makes its alternative claims, read as follows:

Pah. 1575. Fish imported to be used for purposes other than human consumption.
Pah. 1629. Oil cake and oil-cake meal.
Pah. 1630. Oils, animal: Spermaceti, whale, and other fish oils of American fisheries, and all fish and other products of such fisheries and all cod and cod-liver oil.

On the trial in the court below, the parties entered into the following stipulation:

* * * * * * ‡
II. That the merchandise involved in this protest is the residue left after expressing cod-liver oil from cod livers.
III. That the cod livers are first steamed and the resultant oil drawn o$. The remainder of the livers are again heated and the remaining oil expressed by pressure, the residue in the form of cakes is then ground, dried, and sifted into the condition as imported. (Italics ours.)
* * * * * * *

Thereupon, the importer attempted to prove that the merchandise was free of duty as “oil-cake meal” under paragraph 1629, by virtue of commercial designation.

The importer’s witness, Charles R. King, testified, in so far as his testimony might be considered as relating to commercial designation, as follows:

Q. Are you familiar with the merchandise known as oil cake or oil-cake meal?— A. Yes.
Q. How long have you been familiar with it? — A. Since 1915.
Q. Now, speaking generally, Mr. King, will you state what are the characteristics of oil-cake meal as you know it in the trade? — A. Oil-cake meal as designated by the trade are those articles in which the oil has been extracted, leaving a residue or meal which is ground and used as a feed product.
Q. I show you the official sample in the case and I ask you if you are familiar with that merchandise? — A. Yes; I am quite familiar with that.
Q. When did you first see or become acquainted with that merchandise?— A. Two years ago.
Q. That is about 1924? — A. Thereabouts.
Q. Did your firm import it at that time? — A. We started to import it about that time.
Q. That is the first time you ever handled that? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. You said you had been familiar with the merchandise known as oil meal, or oil-cake meal since 1915? — -A. Yes, sir.
Q. Prior to the passage of the Tariff Act of .1922, which was passed on Septena-, ber 21, 1922, do you know whether there was any 'merchandise of that same character as the merchandise shown in thát exhibit in the United States? — A. I know there was not any.
Q. There was never? — A. There was nothing. .
Q. How do you know? — A. I do know.
Q. Was there? — A. There w'as not.
[368]*368Q. You are familiar with the merchandise known as linseed oil-cake meal?— A. Yes, sir.
Q. And merchandise known as soy bean oil-cake meal? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. And cottonseed oil-cake meal? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. Speaking generally, those are all residues after the express?- — -A. Yes, sir.
Q. Speaking generally, what are those commodities, what do those commodities consist o'f? — A. Well, they consist of the residue of meal after the oil has been extracted, either of the cottonseed, linseed, or soya bean. (Italics ours.)

It appears from his testimony that the merchandise is unfit for human consumption, that it is chiefly used as food for animals, and that it had no trade name as late as the year 1924.

With reference to its trade name in 1924, the witness said:

A. It was a new thing; we were the first people to import this particular product.
Justice Adamson. You are not prepared to state what the trade knew it as in 1924?
The Witness. At that time there was no particular trade on it. We designated it as a residue of cod. (Italics ours.)

He testified that there was only one manufacturer of the merchandise in the United States, that the Quaker Oats Co. contracted for and received the entire output of this manufacturer, and that the witness was employed as purchasing agent for the Quaker Oats Co.

He further testified as follows:

Q. Do you know whether this merchandise has become known by a uniform, general, and definite name? — A. Yes, sir.
* * tfi % * * *
Q. By what name is it known? — A. Cod-liver oil-cake meal.
‡ * * ¡fc ^ #
By Justice Young:
Q. Is it referred to as anything else in business, telegrams, or correspondence?— A. As cod-liver meal occasionally, or ccd-liver oil meal.
Q. Cod-liver oil meal? — A. Cod-liver oil cake after they have extracted the oil.
Q. That is the form in which they sell it to you? — A. Yes, sir. (Italics ours.)

The witness identified illustrative Exhibit A as “fish meal.” He said that it was composed of “menhaden fish,” including heads, tails, skins, and bones; that it was known in the trade as “fish meal”; and that it was not like the involved merchandise, but was, in fact and in the trade, an entirely different commodity.

The importer's witness, Wilbert A. Edwards, testified that the merchandise represented by illustrative Exhibit A was known in the trade as “fish meal”; and that it was made by cooking, pressing, drying, and grinding “menhaden fish. ”

William B. Benkert testified for the importer. He said that, for the last two years, the involved merchandise, represented by Exhibit 1, had been known in the trade and commerce of the United States as “cod-liver oil-cake meal.”

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16 Ct. Cust. 366, 1928 CCPA LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-schade-ccpa-1928.