United States v. Sheepshearers Mdse. & Comm. Co.

20 C.C.P.A. 327, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 244
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedDecember 19, 1932
DocketNo. 3524
StatusPublished

This text of 20 C.C.P.A. 327 (United States v. Sheepshearers Mdse. & Comm. 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. Sheepshearers Mdse. & Comm. Co., 20 C.C.P.A. 327, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 244 (ccpa 1932).

Opinion

GaReett, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise here involved was imported through the port oi New York while the Tariff Act of 1922 was in force by Sheepshearers Merchandise & Commission Co. “of Butte, Montana.”' The consular invoices designated it as “agricultural implements.” The local appraiser described it by notations on the respective invoices as “Blades for animal clippers.” The collector of customs classified it and assessed duty upon it under paragraph 357 of Title I of the aforesaid tariff act. The importer protested, claiming it duty free as agricultural implements under paragraph 1504, appearing in Title II of said act. In the letter or “report” of the collector referring the issue to the United States Customs Court for determination appears the statement “on wide combs and wide cutters.”

[329]*329The trial court sustained the protest, and the Government appealed the suit to this court.

Samples are on file as exhibits in the case. These comprise two separate articles, one referred to as a comb and the other as a cutter. They are for use in what is generally referred to as a sheepshearing machine, the machine being a device for the operation of which power is usually supplied by either electricity through the medium of a motor, or by a gasoline engine through the medium of a belt. By proper gearing the power for operation can be produced and transmitted by the turning of a crank by hand. The complete machines for operation in the last-named manner are probably of smaller dimensions than those made for operation by electric or belt power. The combs and cutters at issue are for the larger type of machine.

There is no question made as to these being parts for a device which is used for shearing sheep and not used for clipping other animals. In other words, the exclusive use of the articles whose classification is in issue is for shearing sheep.

The piece referred to as a comb consists of a metal plate about 3K by 2% inches over all, and one-eighth inch thick, having a series of points or teeth — 13 in number — sloping from base to outer end, and spaced at the outer end about one-fourth inch apart. The cutter is a metal part having four teeth, spaced about three-fourths inch apart at their outer ends. Over all, it is about 3K by l}i inches, hollowed on the under side and slightly curved at its base.

In operation the comb is rigidly attached by screw bolts to the end of a device which seems to be designated as a hand piece, or “shearing hand piece, ” and the cutter .is attached by means of another device in a manner which leaves it free to slide back and forth, or oscillate, across the stationary comb when power is applied and thus shear the fleece from the sheep. The part, or hand piece, which holds the comb and cutter must be directed by the human hand.

The pertinent part of paragraph 357 of the Tariff Act of 1922, under which the collector classified the merchandise, reads:

Par. 357. Nail, barbers’, and animal clippers, pruning and sheep shears, and all scissors and other shears, and blades for the same, finished or unfinished, valued at not more than 50 cents per dozen, 3J4 cents each and 45 per centum ad valorem; valued at more than 50 cents and not more than $1.75 per dozen, 15 cents each and 45 per centum ad valorem; valued at more than $1.75 per dozen, 20 cents each and 45 per centum ad valorem; * * *.

Paragraph 1504, under which appellee claims, is in full as follows:

Par. 1504. Agricultural implements: Plows, tooth or disk harrows, headers, harvesters, reapers, agricultural drills and planters, mowers, horserakes, cultivators, thrashing machines, cotton gins, machinery for use in the manufacture of sugar, wagons, and carts, cream separators valued at not more than $50 each, and all other agricultural implements of any kind or description, not specially [330]*330provided for, whether in whole or in parts, including repair parts: Provided, That no article specified by name in Title I shall be free of duty under this paragraph.

The contention is made in the Government’s brief that “animal clippers” and “sheep shears” are synonymous with “sheep-shearing machines,” because “clipping and shearing are interchangeable terms and mean the same thing”; that the “combs” and “cutters” involved perform the same function as “blades” in sheep shears; that they are known in the trade as blades; that they are blades in the common meaning of the term, and that it would be a “patent absurdity” to levy duty on instruments used by hand power (the ordinary and familiar sheep shears) to clip hair from sheep and on animal clippers, such as clippers for horses, mules, dogs, and cattle, while admitting duty free “parts of machines” used for shearing sheep. It is also argued that the wool of the sheep is the hair of the sheep. Hence the Government insists the articles are such “blades” as are “specified by name” in paragraph 357, supra, and, therefore (even though used for an agricultural purpose, as defined by this court in United States v. Boker & Co., 6 Ct. Cust. Appls. 243, T. D. 35472, and followed in United States v. Irwin & Co., 7 Ct. Cust. Appls. 360, T. D. 36906), are forbidden classification as agricultural implements by the proviso of paragraph 1504, supra.

Appellee insists that there is a distinction in fact between wool and hair, recognized and made a legal distinction, in a tariff sense, by the Tariff Act of 1922 itself; that the record establishes that long prior to and at the time of the passage of said act three distinct types of implements for the purpose of removing wool and hair from sheep and other'animals “were known in the trade,” viz, (1) sheep shears (being, the familiar hand implements), (2) clipping machines for horses, dogs, mules, and cattle, and (3) sheepshearing machines used solely for the shearing of sheep; that the clipping machines for horses, dogs, mules, and cattle and machines for shearing sheep “could not be used interchangeably,” being “separate and distinct types of implements”; that sheepshearing machines which are power machines would be excluded from paragraph 357, in view of the inclusion therein of hand shears, under the doctrine of expressio unius est exclusio alterius; that sheepshearing machines being so excluded and being duty free as agricultural implements, the combs and cutters for same are likewise duty free as parts of such implements, and, as the leading point, asserts that by the record—

It is conclusively shown that the imported articles are commercially known as combs and cutters and not as blades, and that they were so known long prior to and at the time of the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1922.

In the opinion of the trial court there is no discussion of the common meaning of such terms as “animal clippers,” “sheep shears,” and [331]*331“blades for same,” which are “specified by name” in paragraph 357, supra, and its decision seems to have rested solely upon commercial designation.

The court said:

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Related

Sheldon v. United States
2 Ct. Cust. 109 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)
Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. United States
2 Ct. Cust. 329 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1911)
United States v. Boker
6 Ct. Cust. 243 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1915)
United States v. Irwin
7 Ct. Cust. 360 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1916)

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20 C.C.P.A. 327, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sheepshearers-mdse-comm-co-ccpa-1932.