Case ID: f_139/html/0095-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "WHEELER, District Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

HENSEL, BRUCKMANN & LORBACHER v. UNITED STATES.
    (Circuit Court, S. D. New York.
    March 10, 1905.)
    No. 3,655.
    Customs Duties — Classification—Un wrought Glass Plates Polished.
    In construing the provision in Tariff Act July 24, 1897, c. 11, § 2, Free List, par. 565, 30 Stat. 198 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1684), for “glass plates or discs, rough cut or unwrought,” with the proviso that “discs exceeding eight inches in diameter may be polished sufficiently to enable the character of the glass to be determined,” held, that the proviso does not require the exclusion from said paragraph of polished square plates less than eight inches across, where the polishing is done simply to determine the character of the articles, is of no other use, and is taken off in their manufacture.
    On Application for Review of a Decision of the Board of JJnited States General Appraisers.
    This case relates to importations at the port of New York by Hensel, Bruckmann & Lorbacher, consisting of glass discs about two inches square and one-quarter of an inch thick, the opposite ends of which had been ground and polished to afford passage of light through the glass in order to detect air bubbles. They were classified as manufactures of glass, not specially provided for, under Tariff Act July 24, 1897, c. 11, § 1, Schedule B, par. 112, 30 Stat. 158 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1635), and were claimed to be free of duty under paragraph 565 of said act (30 Stat. 198 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1684]), which is set forth in full in the opinion following. This contention was overruled by the Board of General Appraisers on the authority of a former decision, G. A. 5,252, T. D. 24,150, where it was held that articles of the character mentioned in paragraph 565 are, when polished and under the size of eight inches, excluded from said paragraph by implication °of the proviso therein.
    W. Wickham Smith, for plaintiff.
    D. Frank Lloyd, Asst. U. S. Atty.
   WHEELER, District Judge

(after stating the facts). The free list of the act of 1897 provides for:

“565. Glass plates or discs, rough-cut or unwrought, for use in the manufacture of optical instruments, spectacles, and eye glasses and suitable only for such use: provided, however, that such discs exceeding eight inches in diameter may be polished sufficiently to enable the character of the glass to be determined.” Act July 24, 1897, c. 11, § 2; Free List, 30 Stat. 198 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1684].

This importation is of square plates less than eight inches across, which had been polished on opposite edges for determining the character and fitness of the glass for these uses. The evidence taken in this court shows that this polish is all taken off in making the articles intended, and is not of any use for that purpose; while the polishing of the -large discs for determining the character of the glass is done upon the broad surfaces, and is of use in making them into lenses. What was done to these plates would merely ascertain whether they would come within the description of this paragraph, and not do anything towards their manufacture, and they were therefore unwrought.

This difference in the effect of what is done to the respective sizes, which is presumed to have been known to Congress, seems to account for the provision allowing what is done to the larger size without mentioning the other.

Decision reversed.