Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/215/392/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:12:26+00:00

Document:
The construction given by the department charged with executing a tariff act is entitled to great weight, and where for a number of years a manufactured article has been classified under the similitude section, this Court will lean in the same direction, and so held that the Japanese beverage sake is properly dutiable under § 297 of the Tariff Act of July 24, 1897, c. ll, 30 Stat. 151, 205, as similar to still wine, and not as similar to beer.
After a departmental classification of an article under the similitude section of a tariff law, the reenactment by Congress of a tariff law without specially classifying that article may be regarded as a qualified approval by Congress of such classification.
article the same rate of duty as is chargeable on the article which it resembles, paying the highest rate of duty."
In November, 1904, petitioner imported some sake at the port of San Francisco, and, following prior rulings, the collector, under the similitude section, held it similar to still wine containing more than fourteen percent of absolute alcohol, and dutiable accordingly at fifty cents per gallon, under paragraph 296 (p. 174). The petitioner protested, and claimed that it was either a nonenumerated manufactured article, dutiable at twenty percent ad valorem, under § 6 (p. 205), or, by reason of similitude to ale, porter, or beer at twenty cents per gallon under paragraph 297 (p. 174). Both the Board of General Appraisers and the circuit court sustained the protest, feeling themselves constrained by the decision of the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York (Nishimiya v. United States, 131 F. 650), and that of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (United States v. Nishimiya, 137 F. 396). On appeal, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of the circuit court and sustained the classification made by the collector.
"We have said that, when the meaning of a statute is doubtful, great weight should be given to the construction placed upon it by the department charged with its execution. Robertson v. Downing, 127 U. S. 607; United States v. Healey, 160 U. S. 136. And we have decided that the reenactment by Congress, without change, of a statute which had previously received long continued executive construction, is an adoption by Congress of such construction. United States v. Falk, 204 U. S. 143, 204 U. S. 152."
In the decision of this case, MR. JUSTICE WHITE and Mr. Justice Peckham concurred solely because of the prior administrative construction.
Prior to 1894, sake was classified by similitude to distilled liquor, and subjected to a duty of $2.50 per proof gallon, under paragraph 329, act 1890, 26 Stat. 567, 589, c. 1244, and $2, under Schedule A,, act 1883, 22 Stat. 488, 494, c. 121.
"Still wines, including ginger wine or ginger cordial, vermuth, and rice wine or sake, and similar beverages not specially provided for in this section . . . if containing more than fourteen percentum of absolute alcohol, sixty cents per gallon."
36 Stat. 11, 40, c. 6.
In April, 1903, Nishimiya imported some sake at New York, and protested against the classification by similitude to still wine. The Board of Appraisers sustained the collector, but, on appeal to the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, the circuit judge thought that sake was not sufficiently like either wine or beer to be classified by similitude, and held it to be a nonenumerated manufactured article. This conclusion was sustained by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. United States v. Nishimiya, supra.
Congress. It was accepted without challenge until 1902. Then, a protest against it having been overruled, it remained unchallenged for another year. After this, and in the latest tariff act, Congress has in terms put sake in the category with still wines.

References: § 297
 § 6
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