Worthington v. Robbins

• Decision Date: 30 March 1891
• Citation: 11 S.Ct. 581,139 U.S. 337,35 L.Ed. 181
• Parties: WORTHINGTON, Collector, v. ROBBINS et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

139 U.S. 337

11 S.Ct. 581

35 L.Ed. 181

WORTHINGTON, Collector, v. ROBBINS et al.

March 30, 1891.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Parker, for plaintiff in error.

J. P. Tucker, for defendants in error.

BLATCHFORD, J.

This is an action brought in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts by R. E. Robbins and others, copartners as Robbins, Appleton & Co., against Roland Worthington, collector of customs for the revenue district of Boston and Charlestown, to recover an alleged excess of duties, paid under protest, on importations into the port of Boston in* March and May, 1884, of an article known and described in trade as 'white hard enamel.' The case was tried by the circuit court without a jury on the following statement of agreed facts. 'The plaintiffs imported from a foreign country into the United States, to-wit, into the port of Boston, in the district of Massachsuetts, in the months of March and May, 1884, two lots of white hard enamel, in the steam-ships Marathon and Samaria, from Liverpool, and made entries of the same at the custom-house in said Boston, for consumption. The defendant, as collector of customs at said port, assessed, liquidated, and exacted duties upon this enamel at the rate of 25 per cent. ad valorem as 'watch materials, not specially enumerated or provided for.' Plaintiffs duly protested to the defendant against the exaction of such rate of duty, and claimed that the lawful duty due upon this enamel was 20 per cent. ad valorem, as an article 'manufactured in whole or in part, not herein enumerated or provided for.' A copy of the protest is annexed and made a part hereof. Plaintiffs duly appealed to the secretary of the treasury, who sustained the defendant in his action. In due time and form plaintiffs instituted this action for the recovery of duties paid in excess of twenty per cent. ad valorem. It is agreed that the merchandise is and was in 1883 known and described in trade as 'white hard enamel;' that it is used for various purposes, including the making of faces or surfaces of watch dials, scale columns of thermometers, faces or surfaces of steamgauge dials, and for other purposes, when a smooth or enameled surface is desired. It is further agreed that the form or condition of this merchandise, as imported, affords no evidence or indication of the use to which it is to be applied. It is further agreed that this merchandise, in the form or condition as imported, cannot be used for any of the purposes above described, nor for any purposes whatever of practical use to which it is adapted or ever applied; that before it can be applied to any practical use its present form and condition must be changed by grinding or pulverizing, and new processes of manufacture applied. It is further agreed, if it would be competent to prove the same, that the plaintiffs are, and have been for several years prior to said importations, manufacturers of watches; that the enamel in controversy was imported by them for use in making watch-dials, and was in fact so used. If the court shall be of the opinion that the duty lawfully chargeable upon this merchandise was 20 per cent. ad valorem, the judgment shall be for the plaintiffs for the excess exacted, to be ascertained by an assessor, with interest and costs. On the contrary, if the court shall be of the opinion that the duty exacted was that lawfully due, then judgment shall be for the defendant for costs.

The protest referred to in the statement of agreed facts wasas follows: 'Boston, July 3, 1884. Sir: We respectfully protest against your decision, assessment, liquidation, and exaction of duties at the rate of twenty-five per cent. ad valorem upon our importation of three packages of white hard enamel marked 1822/4 in the steam-ship Samaria from Liverpool, and entered for consumption on the 12th day of May last, claiming that under the existing laws of the United States this merchandise is liable only either to a duty of ten per cent. or twenty per cent. ad valorem. This enamel is not enumerated by name in the tariff; therefore must be classed for duty purposes under some general term or description. It bears no similitude to any named article in the tariff, within the intent or provisions of section 2499 of the act of March 3, 1883, and cannot be classed under that section. It is a crude article, only useful for any purpose by the destruction of its present form and condition, and a complete process of manufacture, and is provided for by ...