Seeberger v. Schlesinger
| Decision Date | 09 April 1894 |
| Docket Number | No. 274,274 |
| Citation | 14 S.Ct. 729,38 L.Ed. 560,152 U.S. 581 |
| Parties | SEEBERGER, Collector, v. SCHLESINGER et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Asst. Atty. Gen. Whitney, for plaintiff in error.
P. L. Shuman and W. Wickham Smith, for defendants in error.
This case involves the proper classification for duties under the act of March 3, 1883, of Chinese goatskins and pearl opera glasses.
1. In reference to the goatskins, the court found that the plaintiffs imported and entered at the custom house in the port and district of Chicago certain Chinese goatskins, dressed and finished, upon which the plaintiffs paid a duty of 40 per cent. ad valorem, as 'rugs,' not otherwise provided for, classified and assessed by the defendant collector under Schedule K, act of March 3, 1883, namely: 'Carpets, and carpetings of wool, flax, or cotton * * * not otherwise herein specified, forty per centum ad valorem; and mats, rugs * * * shall be subjected to the rate of duty herein imposed on carpets.' Plaintiffs paid these duties under protest, and appealed to the secretary of the treasury, claiming that such merchandise should be assessed a duty of 20 per cent. ad valorem, under Schedule N, 'Sundries,' as 'skins dressed and finished, of all kinds, not specially enumerated.' The court further found 'that the goods in question were described in the invoice as 'Chinese goatskins;' that they are tanned with the hair on, so that the skin is soft and pliant; and none of the skins are whole or entire, but that the articles imported are made of pieces of skins, tanned as aforesaid, loosely sewed together, so as to make large parallelogram-shaped pieces about 18 inches wide by 36 to 48 inches long; that they are advertised and sold to some extent for floor rugs, and are sometimes lined and trimmed for sleigh and carriage robes; that they are not always used in the shape imported, but are sometimes cut apart at the seams, or cut into strips and dyed, and used for trimming lap robes, overcoats,' etc.
We agree with the court below in holding that the skins in question were improperly classified as 'rugs.' Schedule K of the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat. 508), is entitled 'Wool and Woolens,' and, until the clause in question is reached, provides for duties upon various classes of wools, woolen goods, clothing, and carpets, including, as an analogous material, the hair of the alpaca goat and other like animals, with fabrics made of such hair, or mixtures of the same with wool. The schedule then imposes a duty of six cents per yard upon 'hemp or jute carpeting,' and then provides that 'carpets and carpetings of wool, flax, or cotton, or parts of either or other material, not otherwise herein specified, forty per centum ad valorem; and mats, rugs, screens, covers, hassocks, bedsides, and other portions of carpets or carpetings, shall be subjected to the rate of duty herein imposed on carpets or carpetings of like character or description; and the duty on all other mats not exclusively of vegetable material, screens, hassocks, and rugs, shall be forty per centum ad valorem.' There is no mention here of skins, or of hair attached to the skin; and while, if the articles in question were used exclusively or principally as rugs, they might be included within that designation, the fact that they were of the size of small rugs, and were davertised and sold to some extent for that purpose, would not be sufficient, if a more specific designation could be found. It not only appears that they were sometimes lined and trimmed for sleigh and carriage robes, but that they were not always used in the shapes imported, and were sometimes cut apart at the seams, and cut into strips and dyed, and used for trimming garments. In fact, their uses were so various that they afford a very unsatisfactory criterion for their classification.
The plaintiffs took the ground in their protest (and in this they were sustained by the court below) that they should be classified under Schedule N, 'Sundries.—Skins dressed and finished.' The clause relied upon is one providing for the assessment of leathers, and reads as follows (page 513):
'Leather, bend or belting leather, and Spanish or other sole leather, and leather not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, fifteen per centum ad valorem.
'Calfskins, tanned, or tanned and dressed, and dressed upper leather of all other kinds, and skins dressed and finished, of all kinds, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, and skins of morocco, finished, twenty per centum ad valorem.
'Skins for morocco, tanned, but unfinished, ten per centum ad valorem.
'All manufactures and articles of leather, or of which leather shall be a component part, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, thirty per centum ad valorem.'
It is insisted, however, that the item of 'skins dressed and finished,' read in connection with the residue of the clause, and particularly with 'skins for morocco, tanned, but unfinished,' indicates that by 'skins dressed and finished' were meant skins dressed and finished in the similitude of leather,—that is, by having the hair removed; and that a reference to the corresponding clause of the Revised Statutes (section 2504, p. 477) shows still more clearly that the clause in question was not intended to include skins with the hair on:
'Leather.—Bend or belting-leather, and Spanish or other sole leather: fifteen per centum ad valorem; calfskins, tanned, or tanned and dressed: twenty-give per centum ad valorem; upper leather of all other kinds, and skins dressed and finished of all kinds, not otherwise provided for: twenty per centum ad valorem; skins for morocco, tanned, but unfinished: ten per centum ad valorem; manufactures and articles of leather, or of which leather shall be a component part, not otherwise provided for, thirty-five per centum ad valorem.
'Leather and skins japanned, patent, or enameled: thirty-five per centum ad valorem.
'All leather and skins, tanned, not otherwise provided for: twenty-five per centum ad valorem.'
In this court it is further claimed by the collector that, while none of the clauses referred to include skins of animals with the hair on eo nomine, the goatskins in question fall either directly or under the similitude clause within the description of 'dressed furs on the skin' (22 Stat. 513), and were dutiable at twenty per centum ad valorem; that, although goatskins are not ordinarily classified as furs,—a term usually reserved for the short, fine hair of certain animals, whose skins are largely used for clothing,—yet in a commercial sense furs have been regarded as including other skins, perhaps more properly designated by the term 'peltry;' and that within their commercial designation is included the covering of all animals whose skin is used either for warmth or ornament, with the hair on. In this connection we are cited to the case of Astor v. Insurance Co., 7 Cow. 202, in which an 'invoice of furs' was dexcribed as consisting of bear and raccoon skins, opossum, deer, fine fisher, cross fox, marten, white raccoon, wild cat, wolf, wolverine, panther, and cub skins. In this case evidence was held to be properly admitted showing that, by the usage of the trade, skins valuable chiefly on account of the fur were called 'fur,' while 'skins' was a term appropriated to those which were valuable chiefly for the skin, by which we understand the skin with the hair removed. Our attention is also called to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which, in treating of the subject of fur, includes within that designation the skins of the bear, buffalo, lamb, lion, tiger, and wolf, although perhaps none of these would fall within the popular...
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