Case Name: DIECKERHOFF et al. v. UNITED STATES
Court: United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1897-12-09
Citations: 84 F. 443
Docket Number: 
Parties: DIECKERHOFF et al. v. UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 84
Pages: 443–444

Head Matter:
DIECKERHOFF et al. v. UNITED STATES.
(Circuit Court, S. D. New York.
December 9, 1897.)
Customs Duties — Classification—Buasb Boxes ron MouukiNG Pirn
Brass boxes for mourning pins, though costing more than the pins, held to be not unusual coverings, and not therefore subject to separate or additional duty.
This was an appeal by Dieckerhoff, Kaffioer & Oo. from a decision of the board of general appraisers affirming the action of the collector of customs for the port of'New York in respect to the classification for duty of certain imported merchandise.
The merchandise in suit consists of mourning pins, imported in small brass boxes, which were packed in cases. The brass boxes cost considerably more than the pins, and were classified for duty as unusual coverings, at the rate of 35 per cent, ad valorem, under paragraph 177 of the act of August 28, 1894. The importers protested, claiming that the brass boxes were the ordinary and usual coverings for such merchandise, and were not subject to additional duty. On the trial the importers produced evidence lo show that the boxes were the usual coverings of such pins, and were never dealt in separately from the pins, but always accompanied the latter into the hands of the consumer. There was nothing to indicate that the boxes were designed for use otherwise than in the bona fide transportation of the pins to the United States, beyond the fact that they were more expensive than the pins, and that the same pins were sometimes, and perhaps more frequently, imported in cheaper, pasteboard boxes.
W. Wickham Smith, for plain ¡iff.
Henry D. Sedgwick, Jr., Asst. IT. S. Atty.

Opinion:
WHEELER, District Judge.
These brass boxes for mourning pins do not appear to be so uncommon or rare, for that purpose, as to be properly called "unusual"; and they do not appear to be "designed for use otherwise than in the bona fide transportation of the" pins to the United States. The value of the boxes is large in proportion to that of tbe pins; but the use, not the value, is made controlling, by the statute, as to whether they should be separately dutiable. Decision reversed.