Waite v. Macy
| Decision Date | 22 April 1918 |
| Docket Number | No. 255,255 |
| Citation | 62 L.Ed. 892,246 U.S. 606,38 S.Ct. 395 |
| Parties | WAITE et al. v. MACY et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Assistant Attorney General Warren, for appellants.
Mr. Joseph H. Choate, J., of New York City, for appellees.
This is a bill brought by importers of tea to prevent the appellants, a board of general appraisers known as the Tea Board, from applying to tea imported by the plaintiffs tests which, it is alleged, are illegal and if applied will lead to the exclusion of the tea. The bill was dismissed by the District Court, 215 Fed. 456, but the decree was reversed and an injunction ordered by he Circuit Court of Appeals, 224 Fed. 359, 140 C. C. A. 45.
The case is within a narrow compass. The Act of March 2, 1897, c. 358, 29 Stat. 604, amended by the Act of May 16, 1908, c. 170, 35 Stat. 163, provides for the establishment of standards 'of purity, quality, and fitness for consumption, of all kinds of teas imported,' etc., § 3 (Comp. St. 1916, § 8788), and makes it 'unlawful * * * to import any merchandise as tea which is inferior in purity, quality and fitness for consumption to the standards' referred to. Section 1 (section 8786). When the tea is entered at the custom house it is compared with the standards by an examiner and if found equal to them in the above particulars it may be released by the custom house; if found inferior it is to be retained. Section 5 (section 8790). But either side may protest and have the matter referred to a board of three general appraisers such as the appellants are. If upon a final re-examination by the board 'the tea shall be found inferior in purity, quality and fitness for consumption to the said standards' the tea must be removed from the country within six months. Section 6 (section 8791). The tea is to be tested in the particulars mentioned 'according to the usages and customs of the tea trade; including the testing of an infusion of the same in boiling water, and, if necessary, chemical analysis.' Section 7 (section 8792). The Secretary of the Treasury is given power to enforce the provisions of the act by appropriate regulations. Section 10 (section 8795). A regulation has adopted a test for the discovery of artificial coloring matter which in brief consists in rubbing tea leaves reduced to dust upon semi-glazed paper with a spatula and examining the smear with a lens. If particles of coloring matter are found a test sheet is submitted to chemical analysis for identification of the coloring matter and as soon as it is identified the tea is to be rejected. It was said below to be undisputed that if the tea in question contains any coloring matter, whether present through design or accident, the appellants pursuing the regulation will keep it out. The standard samples of this tea contain no coloring matter but contain a far greater amount of other foreign substances than does this. This tea is worth nearly four times as much a pound as the standard and the sole cause for rejecting it is the presence of from nine to nineteen parts of Prussian blue in a million of elements otherwise not objected to. It is not contended that the Prussian blue is deleterious. These facts are found by both Courts below. Upon them the plaintiffs (the appellees) say that the Government is attempting to apply criteria not allowed by the law. The Government says that the bill is an attempt to control a board in the performance of its statutory duty and to substitute the judgment of a court for that of the board.
No doubt it is true that this Court cannot displace the judgment of the board in any matter within its jurisdiction, but it is equally true that the board cannot en- large the powers given to it by statute and cover a usurpation by calling it a decision on purity, quality or fitness for consumption. Morrill v. Jones, 106 U. S. 466, 1 Sup. Ct. 423, 27 L. Ed. 267. United States v. United Verde Copper Co., 196 U. S. 207, 215, 25 Sup. Ct. 222, 49 L. Ed. 449. United States v. George,...
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