Whelan v. United States

34 Cust. Ct. 208, 136 F. Supp. 328
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedJune 2, 1955
DocketC. D. 1706
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 34 Cust. Ct. 208 (Whelan 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
Whelan v. United States, 34 Cust. Ct. 208, 136 F. Supp. 328 (cusc 1955).

Opinion

Rao, Judge:

Two importations of so-called “Standard Hardboard, Industrial Grade,” each, consisting of 1,500 sheets, measuring 4'x8'x V", and 350 sheets, measuring 4' x 8' x %6", constitute the subject of the instant controversy. This merchandise was classified by the collector of customs at the port of entry as other pulpboard, plate finished, and assessed with duty at the rate of 7HI per centum ad va-lorem, pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 1413 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 82 Treas. Dec. 305, T- D. 51802.

Timely protests were filed against this decision of the collector alleging that the involved merchandise is properly dutiable at only 5 per centum ad valorem, as wallboard, not plate finished or otherwise processed, within the provisions of paragraph 1402 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Annecy Protocol to said General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 84 Treas. Dec. 403, T. D. 52373, supplemented by Presidential proclamation of April 27, 1950, 85 Treas. Dec. 116, T. D. 52462.

It now appears that the Government, although relying upon the collector’s classification of the imported merchandise as plate finished pulpboard, urges alternatively, and by virtue of the provisions of paragraph 412 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by said Annecy Protocol, supplemented by Presidential proclamation of May 13, 1950, 85 Treas. Dec. 138, T. D. 52476, that the hardboard in issue is properly dutiable at the rate of 16% per centum ad valorem as manufactures of wood or bark, not specially provided for.

The tariff provisions pertinent to this proceeding are couched in the following language:

[210]*210Paragraph 1402, supra, as modified:

Paper board, wallboard, and pulpboard, including cardboard (but not including leather board or compress leather, and except strawboard, solid fiber shoe board and all counter board, and pulpboard in rolls for use in the manufacture of wallboard), not plate finished, supercalendered or friction calendered, laminated by means of an adhesive substance, coated, surface stained or dyed, lined or vat-lined, embossed, printed, decorated or ornamented in any manner, nor cut into shapes for boxes or other articles and not specially provided for:
Wallboard and wet-machine board * * *_5 % ad val.
Other_7K% ad val.

Paragraph 1413, supra, as modified:

Paper board and pulpboard, including cardboard and leather-board or compress leather, plate finished, supercalendered or friction calendered, laminated by means of an adhesive substance, coated, surface stained or dyed, lined or vat-lined, embossed, printed, or decorated or ornamented in any manner:
Pulpboard in rolls for use in the manufacture of wallboard, surface stained or dyed, lined or vat-lined, embossed, or printed_ 10% ad val.
Other_$7.25 per ton of 2000 lb. but not less than 7% % nor more than 15% ad val.

Paragraph 412, supra, as modified:

Manufactures of wood or bark, or of which wood or bark is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for:
sj< ‡ # # # Hí
Other * * *_ 16%% ad val.

The two protests here under consideration were consolidated for the purposes of trial, and counsel for the respective parties have stipulated that the merchandise at bar, as represented by plaintiff’s exhibit 1, a sample of the involved hardboard, in its condition as imported, except for size, was not supercalendered, friction calendered, laminated by means of an adhesive substance, coated, surface stained or dyed, lined or vat-lined, nor embossed, decorated, or ornamented in any manner. The omission to stipulate that it was also not printed was obviously an oversight, as the sample in evidence, as well as the description of the various processes by which it was produced, clearly demonstrates that the merchandise was not printed. It has also been agreed that wood fibers are the component material of chief value in the imported product.

It is the contention of plaintiff that the merchandise at bar is not provided for in paragraph 1413, as modified, supra, because it has not [211]*211been plate finished nor subjected to any “secondary” process of manufacture; that it belongs to a class or kind of paperboard which was known and chiefly used as wallboard at and prior to the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930; and that, as it is eo nomine provided for in paragraph 1402, as modified, supra, the provision in paragraph 412, supra, for manufactures of wood can have no application.

In this, as in all customs litigation, the burden rests with the plaintiff to establish, first, that the collector has erroneously classified the merchandise under protest, and, second, that the imported product ought properly to be classified within the provisions alleged to include it. United States v. Gardel Industries, 33 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 118, C. A. D. 325; Yardley & Co., Ltd., et al. v. United States, 41 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 85, C. A. D. 533; Joseph E. Seagram cfe Sons, Inc. v. United States, 30 C. C. P. A. (Customs) 150, C. A. D. 227, and cases cited therein. As applied to the issues in this case, in the light of the provisions of said paragraphs 1402 and 1413, the classification of the collector, and the stipulation of the parties, before plaintiff could appropriately invoke the eo nomine provision for wallboard in said paragraph 1402, it was necessary to establish that the hardboard at bar was not pulpboard, plate finished. Since paragraph 1402, both as originally enacted, and as modified, provides for such wallboard only as has not been plate finished, any inquiry into the proposition of whether or not hardboard is of a class or kind of paperboard known and chiefly used as wallboard at and prior to June 17, 1930, remains of secondary consideration until the issue of whether or not the instant board has been plate finished is resolved. Then, but only if the answer is in the negative, does proof of characteristics and use as wallboard become relevant. Accordingly, we shall address ourselves first to what we have characterized as the primary issue, to wit, is the hardboard at bar, plate finished?

It appears from the record that the merchandise at bar was manufactured in the Sturgeon Falls mill of the Abitibi Power and Paper Co., Ltd., a Canadian corporation, hereinafter referred to as Abitibi, by a process which is the same or substantially the same as that employed by the Masonite Corp. and the Forest Fiber Products Co., both domestic concerns which manufacture hardboard, and that the domestic products “Masonite Standard Hardboard,” represented by plaintiff’s exhibit 16 and defendant’s exhibit C, and “Forest Board,” represented by defendant’s exhibit E, are in all material respects the same as- the Abitibi hardboard here in issue, as represented by plaintiff’s exhibit 1.

Generally speaking, hardboard, as defined in this record, and in the patents of William H. Mason, its inventor and the guiding spirit of the Mason Fibre Co., the predecessor of Masonite Corp., is a hard, dense, grainless wood fiberboard composed of interfelted lignins cellulose fibers and having a specific gravity greater than most woods.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

John H. Faunce, Inc. Masonite v. United States
80 Cust. Ct. 139 (U.S. Customs Court, 1978)
Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States
71 Cust. Ct. 81 (U.S. Customs Court, 1973)
Borneo Sumatra Trading Co. v. United States
56 Cust. Ct. 166 (U.S. Customs Court, 1966)
Whelan v. United States
40 Cust. Ct. 192 (U.S. Customs Court, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 Cust. Ct. 208, 136 F. Supp. 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whelan-v-united-states-cusc-1955.