Werner G. Smith Co. v. United States

27 Cust. Ct. 121, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 817
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedAugust 6, 1951
DocketC. D. 1357
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 27 Cust. Ct. 121 (Werner G. Smith 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
Werner G. Smith Co. v. United States, 27 Cust. Ct. 121, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 817 (cusc 1951).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge:

The merchandise involved in this action consists of an importation of tall oil, invoiced as liquid rosin. It was assessed for duty at the rate of 20 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1558 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as a nonenumerated manufactured article. The plaintiff claims that the merchandise is classifiable as a waste, not specially provided for, at the rate of .per centum ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 1555 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the trade agreements with the United Kingdom and with Mexico, published as T. D. 49753 and T. D. 50797, respectively ; or at the rate of 10 per centum ad valorem as a nonenumerated unmanufactured article under the provisions of paragraph 1558; or as rosin under paragraph 90, as amended by the trade agreement with Mexico, T. D. 50797, at the rate of 214 Per centum ad valorem; or that it is free of duty under the provision for natural gums, natural gum resins, and natural resins, as provided in paragraph 1686 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The claims principally relied upon by the plaintiff are that the merchandise is dutiable either as a waste, not specially provided for, or as a nonenumerated unmanufactured article.

The plaintiff produced three witnesses, James T. Akehurst, the general superintendent of the plaintiff; Carl M. Thorsen, a chemical engineer and general superintendent of the Camp Manufacturing Co. of Franklin, Va., who was formerly employed in the paper mills of the “Korsnas Sagverks Aktiebolag” at Gavie, Sweden, the shipper of the instant merchandise; and C. Olof Gabrielson, a chemical engineer in charge of organic chemical research for “Mo och Domsjo A. B.” in Sweden.

The Government produced four witnesses, Helen Garbutt, a chemist employed by the Government in the appraiser’s stores laboratory, who analyzed the merchandise; Herbert W. Eckweiler, the assistant chief chemist in the New York Customs Laboratory; Jerome L. Boyer, in charge of the technical sales service of Newport Industries, Inc.; and Arthur Poliak, a self-employed consultant in the field of pulp and paper products, holding the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in chemical engineering, and builder of a “pilot plant for tall oil about [123]*1231930,” who had made a considerable investigation relative to the economics and utilization of tall oil in the United States, and is a publisher of several treatises upon the subject of tall oil.

Mr. Akehurst supervised the analysis of fatty acid oils for 17 years. He was familiar with the importation in question, had seen it in storage, had used it for processing, and had also supervised the analysis of it. Such analysis indicated to him that the merchandise was crude tall oil from Sweden. He produced a sample of the imported merchandise, which was admitted in evidence as exhibit 1. He also produced descriptions of the various methods which may be employed in the analysis of merchandise similar to that at bar, received in evidence as plaintiff’s collective exhibit 2.

The witness testified that there was a difference between crude tall oil and refined tall oil, the refined oil being lighter in color and having a lower rosin acid content and a higher fatty acid content than the crude. A sample of the refined tall oil was marked in evidence as illustrative exhibit A.

Mr. Thorsen testified that the terms “liquid rosin” and “crude tail oil” were synonymous; that the word “tall” in the Swedish language is translated “pine.” In the Camp Manufacturing Co., the witness testified he supervises the production of crude and refined tall oils; and that in all the mills he had observed in Sweden producing tall oil,, he saw the tall oil produced in the same manner as in the United States;. The witness described the method of production substantially as, follows:

The process starts with a stick of wood. The bark is removed. It is chipped into wooden splinters. These splinters are placed in a digester where they are treated with sodium hydrate and sodium sulphide under a temperature up to 170° C. from 2 to 7 hours. The contents of the digester are then blown into a receptacle. There, the resultant black liquor is separated from the fiber. The object of that operation is to obtain wood pulp. The fiber is washed with hot water and the resultant liquor is stored in tanks for further processing. In these storage tanks, there is a separation of the fatty and abietic acids-which were present in the wood. These liquors are concentrated in a steam-heated evaporator. The fatty acid soaps are skimmed off.. These skimmings are the soda salts of the fatty and rosin acids in the wood. The skimmings are allowed to settle in a tank. Thereafter, sulphuric acid is added to them.

After acidulating the-skimmings, the tall oil is separated from the remaining product by a flotation method which the witness described! as follows:

After the process has been finished to the completion the thing is left to stanxf in quiet, tall oil floats to the top, and the resultant sodium fades underneath. The acidulation is done in a tank and the separation is done in the same tank.. It [124]*124stands about 3 or 4 hours. Then tbe normal procedure is to run off tbe liquid until you came to a certain level, and there you have to draw off a space, and you draw your tall oil off at that space, and leave tbe rest of it in tbe tank.

The result of the acid treatment is to convert the soaps to the original fatty acids. These fatty acids are “unsaturated fatty acids, principally linoleic, linolenic and oleic.” In the opinion of the witness, the fatty acids, the rosin acids, and the unsaponifiable matter in exhibit 1 are the same materials as are found in the pine trees in Sweden.

Defendant’s exhibit 3 consists of a pamphlet containing an analysis of the constants and compositions of various fats and oils which the witness testified were sold by his company and that said pamphlet was used by the employees of the company and disseminated in the trade.

The witness also testified that exhibit 4 contains an authoritative description of tall oil by persons in the wood pulp industry, and he also agreed with that definition, which is as follows:

Tall Oil. — Tbe natural mixture of rosin acids related to abietic acid, and of fatty acids related to oleic acid, together with nonacidic bodies, wbicb is obtained by acidifying tbe black liquor skimmings of tbe alkaline paper pulp industry.

On cross-examination, the witness further testified that in the making of pulp, paper is the primary article to be obtained; that turpentine is obtained in the production of wood pulp by condensing the gas and steam that .is drawn off at the top of the digester during the cooking; that the turpentine is separated and then it is purified; that the cooking procedure is undertaken in order to separate the cellulose fibers from the other material; that turpentine is obtained as a byproduct, and in the same way rosin is obtained as an incidental product, that is, a parallel product; that after producing the wood fibers, the rosin and the turpentine, there remains the black liquor, which is further concentrated; that the concentration is for the purpose of obtaining as many of the chemicals as possible; that, after the black liquor has been concentrated and put in the storage tank, the soaps float to the top and are skimmed off, and the black liquor thus prepared is sent back to the evaporator for further concentration before burning; and that what remains is called skimmings.

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Related

J. E. Bernard & Co. v. United States
30 Cust. Ct. 122 (U.S. Customs Court, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 Cust. Ct. 121, 1951 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/werner-g-smith-co-v-united-states-cusc-1951.