Westco Products v. United States

58 Cust. Ct. 306, 1967 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2443
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedApril 17, 1967
DocketC.D. 2974
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 58 Cust. Ct. 306 (Westco Products 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
Westco Products v. United States, 58 Cust. Ct. 306, 1967 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2443 (cusc 1967).

Opinion

DoNloN, Judge:

Merchandise, a manufacture of Denmark, is described by plaintiffs variously as almond paste, macaroon paste, nougat paste M, confectionery (almond and sugar), and macaroon confection. Regardless of entry (and invoice) names, the record shows that these protests embrace only three different products, made of nuts or other kernels and of sugar, and (in the case of the nougat paste) also containing chocolate cocoa, imported in ten-pound tins.

The merchandise was classified in liquidation as paste; in part, under paragraph 756, as almond paste and, in other part, under paragraph 761, as “nut and kernel paste not specially provided for.”

It is plaintiffs’ claim that all of the merchandise at bar is dutiable under modified paragraph 506 as “confectionery not specially provided for.”

The competing provisions, in relevant part, are as follows:

Paragraph 756 of the Tariff Act of 1930:

Almonds, * * *; almond paste, 18% cents per pound; * * *.

Paragraph 761 of the Tariff Act of 1930:

Edible nuts, * * *; nut and kernel paste not specially provided for, 25 per centum ad valorem: * * *.

Paragraph 506 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (T.D. 51802) :■

Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for:

Valued at 6 cents or more per pound_14% ad val.

There is no issue as to value of the merchandise at bar. It is clear that all of the items are valued substantially above 6 cents per pound.

The first issue to be decided is whether plaintiffs’ proofs establish error in the collector’s liquidation classification. That is nlaintiffs’ first burden.

[308]*308The ingredients and their proportions in the three imported items are as follows:

That which is described as almond paste:

Sweet almonds 66% to 66%%
Sugar 33%% to 34%

That which is described as nougat paste :

Hazelnuts 39%
Sugar 39%
Chocolate cocoa 22%

That which is described as macaroon paste:

Debittered almonds 5%
Apricot kernels 55%
Sugar 40%

The merchandise at bar was imported in ten-pound this, packed four to a case.

Samples of the almond paste (exhibit 1) and of the nougat paste (exhibit 2) were introduced into evidence.

Mr. Allen Zeigler of Los Angeles, testifying for plaintiffs, identified himself as managing partner of Westco Products, bakery supply distributors, one of the plaintiffs. He said that his duties include the various functions of management, that is, buying, supervising salesmen, the office and warehouse employees and the drivers, as well as checking purchased products and their ingredients from the standpoint of compliance with Federal and other governmental regulations. He does not sell, except to a limited extent; but he is familiar w ith the uses of the products that Westco sells.

He described Westco as “the largest distributors and manufacturers of ingredients used by the bakery and confectionery trades in the ivestern part of the United States.” Westco has a test kitchen and a test bakery in its laboratory. Mr. Zeigler said, of the test kitchen and test bakery: “We use these and make finished or saleable products for demonstration or test purposes.” He amplified this by saying:

Well, we will take a shipment at random and open a case, open thereafter one of the individual containers. Our chemists will observe it and on occasion we will make actual, finished, consumable products out of these units; items. [B.. 5.]

As to the Westco customers who buy the imported ten-pound tins, the record of Mr. Zeigler’s testimony, on direct examination, is as follows:

Q. Do you know how this merchandise is used by the purchasers from you ? — A. Generally, yes.
[309]*309Q. How do you happen to know? — A. Because I have seen it in their shops. I have seen the finished products that they sell. I have bought them. And I have been in my customers’ places of business and watched them while they were using these items.
Q. How is it used?
MRS. ZiFK: Is this question limited to the merchandise which is imported? I will object otherwise. By that I specifically mean the merchandise imported in the ten-pound tins.
Judge Nichols : Address your answers to the ten-pound tins.
A. I have seen the ten-pound cans of nougat paste, and I have seen the ten-pound cans of almond liaste, and I have seen the ten-pound cans of macaroon paste that we purchased and imported in 1958 and 1959 being used in the places of business of Westco Products’ customers. I have also seen it being used in our own laboratory.
Q. How do your customers use it? — A. For the most part our customers who buy these products are confectioners, the hotels, where they employ what are known as conditors. And they use these products principally as marzipan, a confection, a candy. They take it out of the larger containers, they paper it, they cut it, mold it. Sometimes they add a little color to it. Sometimes they put a decorative leaf on it. They may make a marzipan raspberry in which case they use a raspberry leaf. They may make a marzipan carrot, in which case they might shape it like a tiny carrot and color it. Then it is sold without having changed the ingredients at all, only the shape of the product.
Q. Are ingredients added to this product? — A. Not generally. [B. 16,17, 18.]
On cross-examination the record shows the following testimony by Mr. Zeigler:
Q. Have you seen — again, I refer to the items used in ten-pound tins — them used as filling in baked articles ? — A. They are sometimes used as filling.

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Related

Leaf Brands, Inc. v. United States
70 Cust. Ct. 66 (U.S. Customs Court, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 Cust. Ct. 306, 1967 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westco-products-v-united-states-cusc-1967.