3 Ct. Cust. 348 | C.C.P.A. | 1912
delivered the opinion of the court:
Certain machines especially adapted to the gold lettering of leather, cardboard, and similar heavy materials, and to the stamping or embossing thereon of gold designs, were classified by the collector at the port of New York as manufactures in part of metal, dutiable at 45 per cent ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 199, tariff act of 1909, which paragraph reads as follows:
199. Articles or wares not specially provided for in this section, composed wholly or in part of iron, steel, lead, copper, nickel, pewter, zinc, gold, silver, platinum, aluminum, or other metal, and whether partly or wholly manufactured, forty-five per centum ad valorem.
The importer protested that the articles imported were printing presses, and that as such they were dutiable at 35 per cent ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 197 of said act, which, in part, reads as follows:
197. Gash registers, jute manufacturing machinery, linotype and all typesetting machines, machine tools, printing presses, sewing machines, typewriters, and all steam engines, thirty per centum ad valorem; * * *.
After a full hearing of the issue presented, the Board of General Appraisers found as a fact that the machines in controversy were not printing presses, but bench-lever embossers and stampers, and accordingly the protest was overruled. The importer appealed and now claims that the finding of the board is unsupported by the facts of the case and is against the weight of the evidence adduced at the hearing. The soundness of this claim depends on the construction to be given and the weight to be accorded to the testimony of H. Hinze and John Curtis, two witnesses called by the importer and testifying in its behalf. Hinze declares that the presses are used for
Stamping press. * * * 3. A blocking press.
Blocking press. A press ior applying heated blocks or dies in ornamenting book covers. Embossing press. A device for stamping raised designs on paper, leather, etc. * * *. Press. * * * Gilding press (a stamping press for effecting sunken decoration with gold leaf).
Century Dictionary:
Stamping press. * * * 3. Same as blocking press. See also arming press.
Blocking press. A press used for stamping designs on book covers; known in the United States as a stamping press.
Arming press. A small hand-power stamping press used by bookbinders. Its earliest employment was in stamping heraldic arms on the sides of books, whence its name. In the United States this form of press is known as a stamping press or embossing press.
Embossing press. An apparatus for stamping and embossing paper, cardboard, book covers, leather, etc. * * *
It is chiefly used by the leather manufacturer or bookbinder, not by the printer, and as far as we can see is a mechanical device better adapted to decorating the outside than to printing the inside of books. The evidence was not sufficient to show that the merchandise imported was generally and uniformly and not partially and locally known to the trade as printing presses. We must therefore hold that commercial designation was not established and that the classification of the collector was correct.
The decision of the Board of General Appraisers is affirmed.