Wesley & Winter, Inc. v. United States

32 Cust. Ct. 24, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1678
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJanuary 13, 1954
DocketC. D. 1575
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 32 Cust. Ct. 24 (Wesley & Winter, Inc. 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
Wesley & Winter, Inc. v. United States, 32 Cust. Ct. 24, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1678 (cusc 1954).

Opinion

Rao, Judge:

The instant protest relates to two importations of crepe paper napkins which were classified by the collector of customs at the port of New York as manufactures of paper, not specially [25]*25provided for. Duty was accordingly assessed thereon at the rate of 17J4 per centum ad valorem, pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Annecy Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 84 Treas. Dec. 403, T. D. 52373, supplemented by Presidential proclamation, 85 Treas. Dec. 116, T. D. 52462. In its protest, plaintiff claimed that said merchandise was dutiable at only 15 per centum ad valorem, as papers, cut to shape, within the provisions of said paragraph 1413, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 82 Treas. Dec. 305, T. D. 51802.

By amendment to the protest, and to provide against the contingency of the collector’s invoking the provisions of paragraph 1404 of said act, as modified by said General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and by virtue thereof of assessing a rate of duty of 3 cents per pound and 7% per centum ad valorem, plaintiff alternatively alleges the applicability of the proviso to paragraph 1404 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The pertinent tariff provisions read as follows:

Paragraph 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by T. D. 52373 and T. D. 52462, supra:

Manufactures of paper, or of which paper is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for (except ribbon fly catchers or fly ribbons), 17K% ad val.

Paragraph 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, supra:

Papers and paper board and pulpboard, including cardboard and leatherboard or compress leather, embossed, cut, die-cut, or stamped into designs or shapes, such as initials, monograms, lace, borders, bands, strips, or other forms, or cut or shaped for boxes or other articles, plain or printed, but not lithographed, and not specially provided for, 15% ad val.

Paragraph 1404 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and as modified by said General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade:

Crepe paper, commonly or commercially so known, including paper creped or partly creped in any manner:
ijs ‡ # % sf:
Valued at more than 12J4 cents per pound, 3(5 per lb. and 7%% ad val.
Provided, That no article composed wholly or in chief value of one or more of the papers specified in this paragraph shall be subject to a less rate of duty than that imposed upon the component paper of chief value of which such article is made: * * *.

At the trial, the parties entered into a stipulation, which, in view of its brevity, we here quote in full:

Mr. Klingaman: Counsel agree that the items marked “A” and checked “E. T. W.” by Examiner Walton on the invoice covered by this protest and assessed with duty at 17K percent ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph [26]*261413 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as manufactures of paper consists of paper napkins the same in all material respects, except that they are made of crepe paper, as the merchandise the subject of Freund Mayer & Co., Inc. vs. United States, Suit 4666, C. A. D. 474, and therein held dutiable under the same paragraph at 15 percent ad valorem as paper embossed, cut, die-cut, or stamped into shapes.
It is further agreed that the record in such C. A. D. 474 be incorporated in the record in this case.
Counsel for plaintiff concedes that the crepe paper of which the napkins were made is valued at more than 12% cents per pound.
Judge La whence: Are the facts as stated by Mr. Klingaman agreed to by counsel in this case?
Me. Welsh: They are, your Honor, on the advice and consent of Examiner Walton.

It is evident from the foregoing stipulation of tbe parties that the primary classification of the merchandise at bar is not in dispute, and that, under the authority of the case of Freund Mayer & Co., Inc. v. United States, supra, paper napkins such as are here involved respond to the description of that portion of paragraph 1413, supra, as modified, which provides for papers, embossed, cut, die-cut, or stamped into shapes. The defendant contends, however, that paper napkins are articles, and the ones here in issue, being composed wholly or in chief value of crepe paper, and valued at more than 12% cents per pound, are subject to the proviso to paragraph 1404, supra, and, hence, are dutiable at the rate of 3 cents per pound and 7){ per centum ad valorem by virtue of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, supra. The proviso to said paragraph 1404 is invoked by defendant only with respect to the merchandise covered by entry 835615, as it is conceded that, with respect to entry 833472, the amount of duty recoverable under the provisions of paragraph 1413, supra, exceeds that which would accrue under the proviso to paragraph 1404, supra. Consequently, in no event would the terms of said proviso become applicable to entry 833472.

In principle the issue raised by the contention of the defendent was before us in the case of Douglas Paper Company v. United States, 30 Cust. Ct. 87, C. D. 1501 (Lawrence, J., not participating), which involved an importation of toilet paper in rolls. Concerning the scope and effect of the proviso in paragraph 1404, supra, and its bearing upon papers, embossed, cut, die-cut, or stamped into designs or shapes, we had this to say:

Of course, in the broad sense of the word, as signifying any thing of matter in the physical world, these rolls of paper are articles, as, in that sense, is the paper from which they were cut. But we think that some more restricted meaning was intended for the word in the particular context in which it is found in paragraph 1404. The article there referred to is one “composed wholly or in chief value of one or more of the papers specified in this paragraph,” and presupposes a thing manufactured in whole or in part from one or more of the specified papers. Since the com[27]*27ponent paper is itself enumerated in the paragraph, no useful purpose is served in so construing the proviso as to encompass any of the specified papers which have not been manufactured into new and different entities.
# ifc % ‡ ‡
In the case of Hamilton et al. v. United States, 167 Fed. 796, T. D. 29519, decided before the predecessor to the instant proviso became a law, the merchandise involved was paper doilies, the lace-like effects of which were produced from plain paper in a single stamping operation. The court there observed that the doilies were nothing more than the paper from which they had been stamped and had not been manufactured into articles having a different use, such as envelopes, bags, or boxes. They were held to be more properly provided for as all other paper, not specially provided for, than as manufactures of paper under the Tariff Act of 1897.

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Bluebook (online)
32 Cust. Ct. 24, 1954 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wesley-winter-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1954.