Court Opinion

ID: 8862068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 17:51:58.321406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:05:51.654056
License: Public Domain

WALLACE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting). I am unable to concur in the judgment in this cause.
Imported materials, viz. "linseed,” were used in the production here of two manufactured articles, viz. linseed oil and oil cake. The plaintiff, upon exporting the oil cake produced from a given number of pounds of the imported linseed, was entitled to a drawback, under the provisions of section 22 of the act of congress of August 27,1894, which provides as follows:
“Where imported materials, on which duties have been paid, are used in the manufacture of articles manufactured or produced in the United States, there shall be allowed on the exportation of such articles a drawback equal in amount to the duties paid on the materials used. Jess one per centum of such duties.”
Upon the linseed used in the oil cake the plaintiff had paid a duty of 20 per cent, for every 56 pounds, amounting to $4,521.09. According to the judgment of the court, the plaintiff is entitled to a drawback of only about 6 per cent, for every 56 pounds, amounting to $1,498.46, upon the theory that it is to be allowed, not upon the number of pounds of the linseed used in the oil cake, but pursuant to a mathematical formula adopted by the treasury department. The statute gives no sanction for such a mode of computing the drawback. The only inquiry which it permits is as to the quantity of the imported material in the exported article and the duty originally paid thereon. The mathematical formula which has been applied cannot possibly lead to a result which satisfies the statute.
It is true that between 1861 and 1870, while a similar statute was in force, it was the usage,of the officers of the treasury department to compute the drawback according to this formula, but the case is not one for the application of the rule that where a statute is ambiguous the practical interpretation given by the executive officers charged with its administration is entitled to great weight. The statute is not ambiguous, but is as plain a.s language can make it.
In iny opinion the judgment of the court below was correct, and should be affirmed.