Wilson v. Spaulding

• Decision Date: 22 January 1884
• Parties: WILSON and others v. SPAULDING, Collector.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

19 F. 304

WILSON and others v. SPAULDING, Collector.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. Illinois.

January 22, 1884

Storck & Schumann, for plaintiffs.

Geo Jos. B. Leake, for defendants.

BLODGETT J.

This suit is brought to recover duties paid by the plaintiffs under protest, to the defendant, as collector of customs of the port of Chicago, upon certain woolen knit goods, shirts and drawers imported by plaintiffs in September, 1882. The goods in question were charged with duty at the rate of 40 cents per pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem, under the twelfth paragraph of class 3, schedule L, Sec. 2504, which reads as follows:

'Flannels, blankets, hats of wool, knit goods, balmorals, woolen and worsted yarn, and all manufacturers of every description, composed wholly or in part of worsted, the hair of the Alpaca goat, or other like animal, except such as are composed of wool, not otherwise provided for, valued at not exceeding forty cents per pound, twenty cents per pound; valued at above forty cents per pound and not exceeding fifty cents per pound, thirty cents per pound; valued at above sixty cents per pound and not exceeding eighty cents per pound, forty cents per pound; valued at above eighty cents per pound, fifty cents per pound; and, in addition thereto, upon all the above-named articles, thirty-five per centum ad valorem.'

The only question in this case is whether the act of congress, approved August 7, 1882, entitled 'An act to correct an error in section 2504 of the Revised Statutes of the United States,' is applicable to and amends schedule M of said section 2504? By its title this act purports to amend section 2504, but the body of the first paragraph of the act reads as follows:

'The paragraph beginning with the words, 'clothing, ready-made, and wearing apparel,' under schedule M of section twenty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, be and the same is hereby amended by the insertion of the word 'wool' before the word 'silk' in two places where it was omitted in the revision of the said statute, so that the same shall read as follows:'

Then follows the paragraph as it would read when amended.

By the letter of the body of this act, it is an amendment of section 25 of the Revised Statutes. The subject-matter of section 25 is the time of holding the election for representatives and delegates to congress in the states and territories; while the subject-matter of this amendment is the rate of custom duties to be levied on certain kinds of imported goods. It is apparent from the reading that there is a mistake in the body of the act as to the section of the Revised Statutes it was intended to amend, it being clear that it was not the purpose of congress to amend section 25. The incorporation of this new matter into section 25 would not only be incongruous to the purpose of the original section, but it would be practically impossible to fit or adjust the new matter to the provisions of section 25, because there is no schedule M in section 25. The question is, can the court apply this act and make it operative, notwithstanding this obvious mistake? It is the duty of the court to so construe any act of congress if possible, as to effectuate the intention of the legislature in enacting it, when that intention can be ascertained from the act itself. Now, it is clear from the body of the act that congress did not intend to amend section 25, and it is equally clear that the intention was to amend some section of the Revised Statutes regulating duties to be paid on imported goods, and an examination of the sections of the Revised Statutes regulating the duties on imported goods shows that section 2504 not only has reference to the duties on imported goods, but it contains a series of schedules identified by letters of the alphabet, among which is 'schedule M,' and as far as I have been able to find by such brief examination as my time would permit, this is the only section in the entire Revised Statutes which contains a 'schedule M.' We find also in this schedule a paragraph beginning with the words, 'Clothing, ready-made, and wearing apparel,' and corresponding in every particular with the paragraph which the act in question purports to amend by the insertion of the word 'wool' before the word 'silk' in two places. In other words, insert the word 'wool' in two places before the word 'silk' in the paragraph of schedule M, Sec. 2504, and you make a new...