United States v. Vandegrift

17 C.C.P.A. 127, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 31
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 12, 1929
DocketNo. 3063
StatusPublished

This text of 17 C.C.P.A. 127 (United States v. Vandegrift) 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. Vandegrift, 17 C.C.P.A. 127, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 31 (ccpa 1929).

Opinions

Hatfield, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Customs Court.

On December 12, 1922, appellee imported 47 bales of carbonized wool at the port of Philadelphia. It was entered for warehousing. On May 28, 1923, the entry was liquidated and the merchandise assessed with duty at 33 cents per pound and 20 per centum ad valo-rem under paragraph 1106 of the Tariff Act of 1922, which reads as follows:

Par. 1106. Wool, and hair of the kinds provided.for in this schedule, which has been advanced in any manner or by any process of manufacture beyond the washed or scoured condition, including tops, but not further advanced than roving, 33 cents per pound and 20 per centum ad valorem.

Appellee did not protest this liquidation.

On April 4, 1924, pursuant to the provisions of section 662 of the Tariff Act of 1922, appellee filed an application for permission to clean, sort, repack, or otherwise change in condition, but not to manufacture, 14 bales of the wool theretofore efitered for warehousing. The pertinent part of section 562 reads as follows:

Sec. 662. * * * Provided, That upon permission therefor being granted by the Secretary of the Treasury, and under customs supervision, at the expense of the proprietor, merchandise may be cleaned, sorted, repacked, or otherwise changed in condition, but not manufactured, in bonded warehouses established for that purpose and be withdrawn therefrom for exportation, without payment of the duties, or for consumption, upon payment of the duties accruing thereon, in its condition at the time of withdrawal from warehouse. The scouring or carbonizing of wool shall not be considered a process of manufacture within the provisions of this section.

The application of appellee having been granted by the Secretary of the Treasury, the wool was repacked. Some of it was withdrawn from warehouse and entered for consumption on May 15, some on May 19, and the remainder on May 26, 1924. At the time of its withdrawal, it weighed 31 pounds less than at the time of its entry [129]*129for warehousing. The record contains ho explanation of this loss of weight.

On July 1, 1924, the collector having refused to reliquidate, appellee filed a protest in which it was claimed that the merchandise was dutiable at its weight at the time of withdrawal from warehouse at 31 cents per pound under paragraph 1102 of the Tariff Act of 1922, which reads as follows:

Pae. 1102. Wools, not specially provided for, and hair of the Angora goat, Cashmere goat, alpaca, and other like animals, imported in the grease or washed, 31 cents per pound of clean content; imported in the scoured state, 31 cents per pound; imported on the skin, 30 cents per pound of clean content.

The court below, in an exhaustive opinion, sustained the protest. In concluding its opinion the court, after quoting the various sections of the tariff act involved, said:

Provisions analogous to these were construed in United States v. G. Falk & Bro., 204 U. S. 143; T. D. 27832, affirming on the merits G. A. 6696, T. D. 25363.
It was held there that tobacco was dutiable on the weight at the time of entry rather than the weight at the time of withdrawal, the proviso concerning weight similar to that in section 319 being held to be of general application.
However, the enactment of section 562 (a new provision), in our opinion, changes the rule of the Falk case and controls over section 319, a change of weight on repacking under that section being expressly such a change as allows reliquidation on the new weight.
The importer being entitled to a xeliquidation upon the liew weight after repacking, the liquidation was open for all purposes and he was entitled to protest the erroneous classification.
Judgment will therefore issue sustaining the protest, with directions to the collector to reliquidate at the new weight on withdrawal and as carbonized wool at 31 cents per pound of clean content under paragraph 1102. * * *

The Government has appealed from the judgment below and makes the following claims in this court; First, that section 319 of the Tariff Act of 1922 requires that duties shall be levied and collected upon the weight of merchandise deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse at the time of its entry; second, that the provisions of section 319 prevail over the quoted provisions of section 562, supra; third, that, in view of the fact that nothing was done to the merchandise except to repack it, and as such repacking did not subject the merchandise to a rate of duty different from that assessed in the original liquidation, the collector was not required to reliquidate; and fourth, that, as it was not filed within 60 days from the date of liquidation, the protest was untimely, and the court below was without jurisdiction to consider it. All of these claims were made on the trial below.

The appellee contends that the protests were timely, and that, .by virtue of the provisions of section 562, “the repacking of this merchandise in bonded warehouse constituted such a change in its condi- , ' [130]*130tion as warranted liquidation upon the basis of its changed status or condition at the time of withdrawal.”

It seems to be the theory of counsel for appellee, and it was the theory of the court below, that, because there was a change in the weight of the merchandise at the time of its withdrawal, due to repacking or to some other cause, the collector was required to reliqui-date the entry and to assess duties in accordance with such weight.

Section 319 of the Tariff Act of 1922 reads as follows:

Sec. 319. That on and after the day when this act shall go into effect all goods, wares, and merchandise previously imported, for which no entry has been made, and all goods, wares, and merchandise previously entered without payment of duty and under bond for warehousing, transportation, or any other purpose, for which no permit of delivery to the importer or his agent has been issued, shall be subjected to the duties imposed by this act and to no other duty upon the entry or the withdrawal thereof: Provided, That when duties are based upon the weight of merchandise deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse, said duties shall be levied and collected upon the weight of such merchandise at the time of its entry.

It will be observed that section 319 provides “ That when duties are based upon the weight of merchandise deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse, said duties shall be levied and collected upon the weight of such merchandise at the time of its entry.” (Italics ours.)

In the case of United States v. Q. Falls & Bro., 204 U. S. 143, the Supreme Court, in considering section 33 of the Tariff Act of 1897, the predecessor of section 319, supra

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Bluebook (online)
17 C.C.P.A. 127, 1929 CCPA LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vandegrift-ccpa-1929.