Case ID: f_141/html/0383-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PLATT, District Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MORIMURA BROS. v. UNITED STATES. CHINA & JAPAN TRADING CO. v. SAME.
    (Circuit Court, S. D. New York.
    December 13, 1904.)
    Nos. 3,547, 3,548.
    Customs Duties—Classification—Stuffed Birds—Toys.
    In regard to stuffed skins of domestic chicks and ducklings, used by confectioners and dealers in Easter goods and novelties, held, that they are not “toys” within the meaning of Tariff Act July 24, 1897, c. 11, § 1, Schedule N, par. 418, 30 Stat. 191 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1674], but “birds, stuffed,” under paragraph 493, § 2, Free List, 30 Stat. 196 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1681].
    On Applicatioñ for Review of a Decision of the Board of United States General Appraisers.
    For decision under review, see G. A. 5,655, T. D. 25,234, which affirmed the assessment of duty by the collector of customs at the port of New York on importations by Morimura Bros., and the China & Japan Trading Company.
    The articles comprised in these importations consisted of the stuffed skins of chicks and ducklings, the young of domestic fowl, which had been killed at the age of about two weeks; the skins being stuffed with cotton and wired to preserve their shape. The board found that these articles were “sold to confectioners and to people who trade in Easter goods and novelties, to be used in trimming candy boxes and branches of trees,” and held that they had been properly classified as “toys” under paragraph 418, Schedule N, § 1, c. 11, Tariff Act July 24, 1897, 30 Stat. 191 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1674]. The contention of the importers that they should have been classified free of duty as “birds, stuffed, not suitable for millinery ornaments,” under paragraph 493, § 2, Free List, 30 Stat. 196 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1681], was overruled on the theory that “Congress only intended that there should be admitted free of duty, under said paragraph 493, birds which are prepared by a taxidermist either as specimens of natural history or for ornamental purposes, other than such as are suitable for millinery ornaments.”
    William B. Coughtry, for importers.
    Charles D. Baker, Asst. U. S. Atty.
   PLATT, District Judge.

The decision of the Board of General Appraisers is reversed.