W. A. Force & Co. v. United States

24 Cust. Ct. 140, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1457
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMarch 16, 1950
DocketC. D. 1222
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 24 Cust. Ct. 140 (W. A. Force & Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W. A. Force & Co. v. United States, 24 Cust. Ct. 140, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1457 (cusc 1950).

Opinion

LawreNce, Judge:

This cause of action presents for our determination the proper classification under the Tariff Act of 1930 of certain articles invoiced as “112 HC fount sets” imported from England.

The merchandise in controversy was classified by the collector of customs at New York as entireties and placed within the provision of paragraph 397 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 397) for articles or wares not specially provided for, composed wholly or in chief value of metal, duty being assessed thereon at the rate of 45 per centum ad valorem.

The principal contention of plaintiff is that the fount sets should not have been classified as entireties but under the provisions of said tariff act for the various articles comprising each set, namely, that the 112 steel type pieces are dutiable as new types at 30 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 388 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 388), the holder at 45 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 397, sufra, the pair of metal tweezers at 60 per centum ad valorem under the eo nomine [141]*141provision therefor in paragraph 354 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 354), the metal wrench at 45 per centum ad valorem under the eo nomine provision therefor in paragraph 396 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 396), and the wooden box at 33K per centum ad valorem in paragraph 412 (19 U. S. C. § 1001, par. 412) as manufactures of wood, not specially-provided for.

A stipulation of fact was entered into by counsel for the respective parties and filed with the court, and is here set forth:

It is hereby stipulated and agreed by and between counsel for the plaintiff and the Assistant Attorney General for the United States that the imported merchandise described on the invoice as 112 H C fount sets and assessed with duty at 45% ad val. under the provisions of Par. 397, Tariff Act of 1930, is correctly represented by the accompanying article marked Illustrative Exhibit A.
1. It is further stipulated that the articles imported as represented by the sample Illustrative Exhibit A consist of a wooden box approximately 5%" x 6%" x 1J4" containing:
(a) 112 steel pieces, 100 of which have on one end either letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks or numerals. The other twelve pieces are smooth on both ends.
(b) a pair of metal tweezers,
(c) one metal holder,
(d) one metal wrench.
2. The appraised unit value of the imported merchandise was £6-0-0 plus packing. Of this amount the

112 steel pieces accounted for_ £A-9-4,

the holder_£1-7-6,

the tweezers_£0-0-6,

the wrench_£0-0-6,

the wooden box_ £0-2-2.

3. In assembly the desired metal pieces are inserted in the holder by means of the tweezers and locked in place by the use of the wrench. Any combination of pieces may be inserted to suit the purpose of the user.
4. When used the metal pieces in the holder are held against ihe surface to be marked and the other end of the holder is struck with a hammer or mallet with sufficient force to impress the characters upon the surface. N o ink is used.

When the case was called for hearing, the above stipulation was supplemented by the oral agreement of the parties that—

We are adding that Illustrative Exhibit A is sold in the United States in the condition as imported.

and the representative sample of the merchandise was received in evidence and marked plaintiff’s illustrative exhibit A.

There being no dispute as to the facts of the case, we are presented here with a clear-cut question of law as to whether the fount sets in controversy are entireties for tariff purposes.

[142]*142Numerous cases decided by this court and our appellate court have been cited by the parties in their briefs, all of which have been carefully examined and some of which will be referred to, infra.

As to what constitutes an “entirety” in the tariff sense, reference is made to the case of United States v. John Wanamaker, Philadelphia, Inc., 20 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 367, T. D. 46132, wherein our appellate court had before it the question whether an importation described in the official report of the collector of customs as “Women's leather hand bag, fitted with mirror, purse and strap watch” comprised a unit and should be dutiable as such. The collector had classified the merchandise as though the bag and the watch were separate articles. The importer’s contention that they constituted an entirety was sustained by the trial court. On appeal, however, that holding was reversed, our appellate court stating—

Questions of entirety almost always present points of difficulty for adjudication, and this suit is no exception to that rule. However, considering the nature of these articles, we feel constrained to differ with the trial court as to their being entireties for tariff purposes. The completed article is obviously somewhat of a novelty, designed to meet, or perhaps to create, a fashion. There is no natural affinity or relation between a leather hand bag and a watch. Neither is normally essential to the completeness of the other. [Italics supplied.]

The trial court quoted from this court’s opinion in the Altman case, supra [13 Ct. Cust. Appls. 315, T. D. 41232], as follows:

* * * if an importer brings into the country, at the same time, certain parts, which are designed to form, when joined or attached together, a complete article of commerce, and when it is further shown that the importer intends to so use them, these parts will be considered for tariff purposes as entireties, even though they may be unattached or inclosed in separate packages, and even though said parts might have a commercial value and be salable separately.
This language is quite broad and, standing alone, might justify the application which the trial court made of it to the instant issue. But, after all, the pronouncement should be weighed and considered in connection with the merchandise there involved and the statutes there applicable. We there had before us “untrimmed cotton corsets” and “lace trimmings,” imported in separate parcels but in the same general containers. The structure of the respective articles was such as that it was obviously intended they should be brought together in a finished product after importation. Each was necessary to the other to produce a new article satisfactory for eventual use. [Italics supplied.] There was a natural and essential connection between the two. For one at least of them there was no eo nomine provision in the Tariff Act of 1922 under which the importation was made.

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Bluebook (online)
24 Cust. Ct. 140, 1950 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/w-a-force-co-v-united-states-cusc-1950.