Case ID: f_79/html/0953-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES v. STEARNS et al.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
    February 1, 1897.)
    Customs Duties—Free List—Quinns.
    Quills, black and white, from turkeys’ wings and tails, only changed from their original condition by cleaning, and by dyeing the black ones, were free of duty, as “quills, prepared or unprepared, but not made up into complete articles,” under paragraph 689 of the act of 3890, and were not dutiable as “ornamental feathers,” under paragraph 448.
    Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
    This was an appeal by the United States from a decision of the board of general appraisers, reversing the action of the collector of customs in respect to the classification for duty of certain merchandise imported by Stearns & Spingarn, The circuit court affirmed the decision of the board (75 Fed. 833), and the United States appealed.
    Henry D. Sedgwick, for the United Slates.
    Albert Comstock, for appellees.
    Before WALLACE, LACOMBE, and SHIPMAN, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

The articles in question were quills from turkeys’ wings and tails, some white and some black. They were no further advanced, and were in their original condition, except that they had been cleaned, and the black ones dyed. They were assessed for duty as “ornamental feathers,” under paragraph 448, Act 1890. 'That paragraph provides, inter alia, for “colored and ornamental feathers not specifically provided for in this act.” Paragraph 689 of the free list provides for “quills, prepared or unprepared, but not made up into complete articles,” and does not contain the m. o. p. f. clause. The evidence did not establish the fact that there was any commercial designation which would take the articles out of their ordinary designation as “quills”: and we agree with the circuit court in holding that these quills are specially provided for by said paragraph of the free list, and are, therefore, not dutiable as feathers not otherwise specially provided' for.