William Cooper & Nephews, Inc. v. United States

10 Cust. Ct. 247, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 742
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedMay 3, 1943
DocketC. D. 763
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 10 Cust. Ct. 247 (William Cooper & Nephews, 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
William Cooper & Nephews, Inc. v. United States, 10 Cust. Ct. 247, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 742 (cusc 1943).

Opinion

Cole, Judge:

The merchandise in this case was imported at the port of Chicago and is described on the invoice as “30 Casks Contg 5040 lbs. DERRIS RESIN MIXED WITH INERT POWDER (10% Derris Resin, 90% Inert Powder).” It appears from a red-ink notation on the invoice that the appraiser advisorily classified the merchandise as a chemical compound. The collector assessed duty thereon at the [248]*248rate of 25 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 5 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1001, par. 5), which reads as follows:

All chemical elements, all chemical salts, and compounds, all medicinal preparations, and all combinations and mixtures of any of the foregoing, all the foregoing obtained naturally or artifically and not specially provided for, 25 per centum ad valorem.

It will be observed that the same rate and the same paragraph apply whether the merchandise is classified as a chemical compound or a medicinal preparation. It does not appear from the official papers, however, whether the collector adopted the advisory return of the appraiser, or classified the merchandise as a medicinal preparation.

Plaintiff claims that the merchandise is free of duty, either as a natural resin, not specially provided for, under paragraph 1686, or as a crude drug under paragraph 1669; or, dutiable at 10 per centum under paragraph 34 as a drug advanced in value or condition, or at 20 per centum under paragraph 1558, as a nonenumerated manufactured article. The claim under paragraph 34 is pressed more vigorously than the others, but this opinion discusses each claim.

It is conceded by plaintiff's attorneys in their supplemental brief (page 17) that fhe merchandise in question is identical with that which was before the court in United States v. Wm. Cooper & Nephews, Inc., 22 C. C. P. A. 31, T. D. 47038, and therefore the judgment in that case becomes vitally important and will be discussed hereinafter at some length.

Analysis of the merchandise'un question revealed that it consists of 12 per centum derris resin and 88 per centum clay, the latter an inert substance used as a distributing or diluting agent and to “prevent the resin, itself, from massing together.” Derris resin is a material extracted from the natural root of the derris plant with solvents that are later removed. The term “resin” implies numerous constituents, and, quoting plaintiff’s witness, Chewening, derris resin “is a composition of numerous chemical compounds.” After the solvents referred to are removed, the residue is dried and ground into powder. • It is combined with clay, forming the imported merchandise.

«The imported product, which was purchased by the plaintiff-corporation in England where it was-specially prepared for them, is never sold in its imported condition. The derris resin is always diluted, either by adding more clay or introducing other substances, to bring it to strength regarded as commercially safe as an ingredient in animal insecticides, for which it is chiefly used. It is also employed, to some extent, as an antipara sitie on humans and in horticultural work as an insecticide, but such uses are incidental or occasional. In commercial products, including dog flea powder and dog mange powder, wherein the imported commodity is used, derris resin constitutes about 3 per centum of the whole and is largely, if not entirely, the active ingredient [249]*249therein. Its value lies in its therapeutic properties that mitigate or exterminate bodily diseases and which plaintiff described as follows:

In the destruction of fleas on animals and humans, it destroys the piece, which were it allowed to continue, would create sores, and in the case of susceptible humans, there would be considerable nervous effect on the nervous system, and so I feel very definitely there is therapeutic action in that these pieces are destroyed, and the continuing effect of prevention, and that will follow in the case of lice, and in the case of fleas there is this tape worm embryo, as I mentioned before, which develops in the dog after the flea has been swallowed, and then by reverse action, in the event that the flea is destroyed you prevent the attack of tape worm.

While there is some doubt expressed as to whether the derris resin would cure sores, it is conceded that it will prevent the “continuation or aggravation” of such condition.

In the Wm. Cooper & Nephews, Inc., case, supra, which, as heretofore stated, involved identical merchandise, the only question presented was whether the product was dutiable as a medicinal preparation under paragraph 5, supra, as assessed by the collector, or free of duty as a natural resin, not specially provided for, which is one of the claims alleged herein. The court invoked the well-known tariff principle that a classification controlled by use prevails over - an eo nomine designation, and accordingly upheld the collector’s classification that the merchandise was a medicinal preparation.

The record before us contains nothing to disturb the decision in the cited case. On the contrary, it fully supports the court’s conclusion therein. The uncontradicted testimony on use of the merchandise in question clearly establishes its classification as a medicinal preparation. Hence, the rule applied in the Wm. Cooper & Nephews, Inc., case, supra, has the same force and effect here.

It cannot be overlooked that in the first case, involving like merchandise, a definite set of facts supported a classification under paragraph 5, supra, as a medicinal preparation. The factual basis therein was supplied exclusively by the witness Timson, president of the plaintiff corporation. With the issue clearly drawn in that case between paragraph 5 and paragraph 1686, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals not only decided that the protest therein should be overruled, thereby denying the classification sought under paragraph 1686, but sustained the collector’s classification of medicinal preparations under said paragraph 5. We feel it is fair to assume that if there had been any doubt upon the record in that case that the merchandise there, which is identical with the merchandise here, should not have been classified under paragraph 5, supra, as a medicinal preparation, then action similar to that taken in United States v. Sheldon & Co., 14 Ct. Cust. Appls. 318, T. D. 41915, would have been followed. In that case, the appellate court decided that the merchandise was incorrectly classified by the collector, but as the importers had confined [250]*250their protest claim to a paragraph which did not apply, the court was-unable to do more than reverse the judgment, without affirming the-decision of the collector. The court, however,- went further and suggested that the goods might he more properly classifiable under some other paragraph not presented in the record. Clearly, if such procedure had been followed by the appellate court in the Wm. Cooper & Nephews, Inc., case, supra, — that is declaring merchandise identical with that now before the court as improperly classified by the collector and not belonging under the classification urged by the importer,, but from the evidence before the court properly dutiable under another-paragraph (34) if you please — such finding would have justified litigation upon a similar set of facts. But that was not done..

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Bluebook (online)
10 Cust. Ct. 247, 1943 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 742, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/william-cooper-nephews-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1943.