United States v. Singer Manufacturing Co.

37 C.C.P.A. 104
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedFebruary 2, 1950
DocketNo. 4619
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 37 C.C.P.A. 104 (United States v. Singer Manufacturing 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. Singer Manufacturing Co., 37 C.C.P.A. 104 (ccpa 1950).

Opinion

Johnson, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the United States Customs Court, Second Division, rendered pursuant to its decision, C. D. 1152 (22 Cust. Ct. 21), sustaining the protest of the importer, appellee, 130348-K/1856, in which it was claimed that the involved articles, imported as “Rough Unmachined Castings (Cast Iron),” were properly dutiable at 10 per centum ad valorem pursuant to paragraph 327 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U. S. C. 1001, Par. 327, as modified by the trade agreement, 19 U. S. C. 1351, between the United States and Canada, 53 Stat. 2348, 2381 (1938), T. D. 49752, rather than as “parts of machines, not specially provided for” as assessed by the collector at the port of Ogdensburg, New York, at 27K per centum ad valorem, under'paragraph 372 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U. S. C. 1001, Par. 372. The pertinent parts of the Tariff Act of 1930 provide as follows:

Par. 327. [As modified by the trade agreement with Canada] Cast-iron andirons, plates, stove plates, sadirons, tailors’ irons hatters’ irons, but not including electric irons, and castings and vessels wholly of cast iron, including all castings of iron or cast-iron plates which have been chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process but not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts_10% ad val.
Par. 372. * * * all other machines, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for, 27)4 per centum 8d valorem: Provided, That parts, not specially provided for, wholly or in chief value of metal or porcelain, of any of the foregoing, shall be dutiable at the same rate of duty as the articles of which they are parts: * * *

[106]*106The appellee presented the testimony of three witnesses and introduced in evidence samples of the articles as imported and samples of them in the condition in which they were finished after importation. The Government offered no testimony.

The undisputed testimony is that the imported merchandise consists of rough, unmachined castings of iron with nothing done to them after the foundry work except the tumbling, grinding, and sandblasting, which simply consists of taking the sand off the castings and removing any burrs or projections; that none of the castings have been machined, drilled, or otherwise advanced in condition or in value before importation; and that none of the castings in their imported condition could be used as a part of a power transmitter or power table which was their intended use in their finished condition; also, that none of the castings could be used in their imported condition for any commercial use as a made-up article or as a part of a made-up article, or as finished machine parts; and that the castings were of such form and shape that their only use was to be made into parts for a power transmitter or power table after essential additional work was done including milling, drfiling, facing, tapping, boring, reaming, counter-boring, japanning, grooving, grinding, and assembling.

There being no dispute as to the facts, the case resolves itself solely into a question of law.

The Government contends that the involved castings are articles or parts of articles, and therefore excluded from paragraph 327, supra, by virtue of the words'“but not made up into articles, or parts thereof”; that “where a material has been advanced in manufacture so as to have reached a stage in which it is clearly incapable of being made into more than one article, then it should be held, even though unfinished, to have been so dedicated to a single use as to fix its status as a part of that article”; that paragraph 327, supra, was intended to embrace castings which had not been fabricated to such a point that they were dedicated to a particular use at the time they left the foundry and that the imported castings are properly dutiable as parts of machines, not specially provided for, under paragraph 372, supra.

In support of that contention, the Government cites B. A. McKenzie & Co. Inc. v. United States, 3 Cust. Ct. 72, C. D. 206. In that case, cast iron castings in the condition in which they left the foundry were held to be dedicated to the sole use of being processed into parts of a machine for grinding saw plates and were held to be dutiable under paragraph 372, supra, as “parts of a machine tool.” The court said, “It is a well-settled principle of customs law that where a material has been so advanced in manufacture as to have reached the stage in which it is clearly incapable of being made into more than one [107]*107article, then it shall be deemed, even though unfinished, to have been so dedicated to a single use as to fix its status as a part of that article, where the article is in fact such a part,” citing United States v. Schenkers, Inc., 17 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 231, T. D. 43669. As was said by this court in the Schenkers case, “We think this naked principle of law thus stated is sound, but is it applicable in the instant case?” We do not think the castings here involved come within the principle above announced.

The testimony in the case at bar shows that each of the rough castings is of a particular form and intended for ultimate use as a part of a power transmitter or power table, not however by reason of having been “chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process” but solely because of the pattern in which it was cast.

W e doubt if castings of iron are ever made without a predetermined ultimate use which determines the form in which the castings are made. While the castings here involved were cast into form so as to be ultimately used as parts of a power transmitter or power table, they have not been advanced in manufacture after being cast. They were imported in the condition in which they left the foundry, nothing having been done to them after they were cast except the removal of gates, burrs, and other excrescences. Paragraph 327, sufra, contains a provision for “castings and vessels wholly of cast iron” which is supplemented by the further provision “including all castings of iron or cast-iron plates which have leen chiseled, drilled, machined, or otherwise advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process but not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts.” [Italics added.]

It seems clear to us that the first provision of paragraph 327, supra, above referred to, to wit: “castings and vessels wholly of cast iron,” covers castings of iron as they first arrive in commerce in their rough cast condition as they come from the foundry, and that the second provision above referred to includes castings of iron which have been “advanced in condition by processes or operations subsequent to the casting process” provided they were “not made up into articles, or parts thereof, or finished machine parts.”

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Bluebook (online)
37 C.C.P.A. 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-singer-manufacturing-co-ccpa-1950.