25 F. Cas. 391 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts | 1836
In my judgment the whole point in this cause resolves itself into this; whether the chain cable in controversy was, at the time of its arrival and importation into the United States, bona fide, a part of the equipments and appurtenances of the ship Marathon. If it was, then it is clear
It is possible, that evasions of the revenue laws may sometimes occur, under color of procuring new sails, or rigging, or equipments of our ships in foreign ports; and thus, the party may escape «from the payment of the proper duties on the articles thus imported, and introduced into the country. But, the defect, if any, is to be cured by legislation, and not by the courts of law. Until congress shall declare, that the new rigging or equipments of a ship, procured abroad, are dutiable, or not to be landed without a permit, it seems to be difficult to conceive, how courts of justice can treat them as “goods, wares, or merchandise,” within the meaning of the general revenue laws. The “goods, wares, and merchandises,” within the provision of the 50th section of the revenue collection act of 1799, c. 128, are such only as are designed for sale or to be applied to some use or object, distinct from their bona fide appropriation to the use of the ship; in which they are imported. Upon any other construction, not only every sail, rope, yard, or other appendage of the ship, purchased for the immediate use of the ship, and from an obvious necessity, in a foreign port, would be liable to the ordinary duty acts; but even the common tables, chairs, wares, and provisions, for the daily accommodation of the ship and her crew, would fall under the like predicament, and could not be landed without a permit. It is impossible, in my judgment, to contend, successfully, for such a construction of our existing revenue laws. And yet I know not. how, upon principle, to distinguish between the case put, and the case now at the bar. Upon the whole, my opinion is, that the judgment of the district court ought to be, and hereby is affirmed.