In re Appeal of Fujiyama
In re Appeal of Fujiyama
Opinion of the Court
In this case the importer protested against the classification of the collector of customs for the port of Honolulu, District of Hawaii. The board of general appraisers afiirmed the decision of the collector of customs, from which decision the importer appealed to this court.
Eorty-five casks for white miso were classified at the custom house at Honolulu as sauce, under paragraph 241 of the tariff act of 1897, dutiable at the rate of forty per cent ad valorem. The ground of the protest of the importer was that miso should be classified as a non-enumerated manufactured article, under section 6 of the tariff act and dutiable only at the rate of twenty per cent ad valorem. The general appraisers at New York, after taking evidence and hearing counsel, ruled as follows:
“ Boiled beans are the principal if not the only substantial component article. If it were imported in tins, j ars, bottles or similar packages it would appear to fall exactly within the provision in the first part of said paragraph (241) for 'beans * * * prepared or preserved.’ The miso in question is imported in casks, but it is nevertheless adequately described in the following subdivision of the paragraph as 'vegetables, prepared or preserved,’ if not as 'sauce.’ The assessment appears to be correct, and the protests are overruled, the collector’s decision being afiirmed in each case.”'
From the foregoing description of the method of producing miso, I am of the opinion that the process is a process of manufacture and that miso is a manufactured article. It is not preserved beans as counsel for the government contends. It is made from rice and beans, and rice is the component part of chief value, if we may ascertain the chief value from the value of the component parts at the time they were brought together. Although the statute (sec. 7, act of 1897) says, “The component material of chief value” means “that component material which shall exceed in value any other single component material of the article; and the value of each component material
Miso is a new and completed commercial article known and recognized in the trade by a specific and distinctive name other than the names of either of the materials of which it is made. It is put into a completed condition designed and adapted for a particular use. The fact that it is described in the custom house as bean food or that the words bean food are used as an interpretation of the word miso, has nO‘ particular weight, as the Japanese do not use any such defining words; and the fact that in Brinkley’s Japanese-English dictionary it is defined as “a kind of sauce made of wheat, bean and salt,” has no weight,
“ It has been repeatedly decided, under the tariff acts, that where an article has been advanced through one or more processes into a completed commercial article, known and recognized in trade by a specific and distinctive name other than the name of the material, and is put into a completed shape designed and adapted for a particular use, it is deemed to be a manufacture.” Erhardt v. Hahn, 55 Fed. Rep. 273, 275; Saltonstall v. Wiebusch, 156 U. S. 601; T. D. No. 22,519, G. A. 4775.
The authorities which construe paragraph 241 relating to vegetables prepared or preserved are to the effect that “It is intended to cover vegetables which have been subjected to limited processes in preparing them for consumption, of which we might cite such illustrations as canned com, tomatoes, pease, etc. We are convinced that the provision does not include articles in which the manufacturing process has advanced so far that the identity of the vegetable is practically lost, as in the goods under consideration. It would be a somewhat violent construction, for example, to classify a cake baked from meal produced by grinding corn as a prepared vegetable, on the ground that it was prepared corn.” T. D. 24,513, G. A. 5361.
Counsel for the government lays much stress on the fact that the process of manufacturing miso does not destroy the form of all the beans used in the process, that is, that some of the beans appear in a broken or whole condition capable of identification. This is not a sufficient circumstance to bring the product within paragraph 241, inasmuch as the character and quality of the bean has undergone so radical a change in condition with the other component parts as to lose its bean flavor and the finished article has a flavor of its own which is not that either of the bean or rice.
“ Inspection of the sample which we have before us shows it to be the kernel of the wheat more or less broken and crushed. * * * In many instances the grains or particles are nearly the size of the whole kernel. * * * It certainly is not ‘wheat’ within the meaning of that term in paragraph 234. Is it then dutiable by similitude as wheat, by virtue of section 7 of the tariff act ? It is true the similitude clause provides that in case of similarity in material, quality, texture, or use an unonumerated article shall pay duty at the same rate which is levied on the enumerated article which it most resembles in any of the particulars above mentioned. We do not think, however, that this is a case for the application of that principle. If so, anything made from wheat could be classified as wheat by similitude, no matter how far it may have been removed as a separate and distinct commodity by the application of machinery or work bestowed upon it. Flour in this sense would be similar to wheat; bread would be similar to wheat; and all things made from wheat, or the products of wheat, might, if not enumerated, be classified as wheat. We do not think such is the intention of the law.”
We see by this decision that the fact that the sample contained broken kernels and almost whole kernels of wheat, easily identifiable, was not considered as of any significance.
Much has been made in the discussion in this case of the question of the preservation of the article in a permanent condition, although from the evidence it would appear that miso is not intended to last for an indefinite time after it has reached the eatable stage. This is simply an element of the discussion of the question whether miso is a preserved vegetable or a
The government cites Treasury Decision No. 28,833, Abstract No. 18,417, in which amasake, put up in cans, was decided to be a preserved vegetable under paragraph 241, and claims that amasake being, as shown by the testimony, the rice component, of miso but arrested in its fermentation at a certain point and put up for the market, governs the case of miso. We have no record of the reasons moving the general appraisers in making this decision, and there is nothing before us upon which to base a conclusion that the classification of miso must follow that of amasake. The doctrine of similitude does not follow here; which doctrine is that where a non-enumerated article is substantially similar to an enumerated article chargeable with duty, it shall pay the duty which' is levied on such enumerated article. There is no provision that where one article is charged duty through similitude, another article which is similar to that must also be charged with the same duty, and it does not follow that if amasake is similar to a preserved vegetable, miso, which is composed of several articles and in which the process of manufacture is carried much further, must resemble any enumerated article.
While compelled to reverse the decision of the board of general appraisers, I feel satisfied that had it had the benefit of the testimony which was taken before this court, its decision would have been different. Its only testimony was that of a woman who was a restaurant keeper in New York and who furnished miso to her patrons. She evidently knew little about miso, for she said that it was made of beans and rice or beans and oats, and had nothing to say about any process of fermentation or the use of yeast. The general appraisers must have
The protest is sustained.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN RE APPEAL OF S. B. FUJIYAMA
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Duties — Miso — Unenumeraled articles — Preserved vegetables — A sauce: A Japanese product made from beans and rice by processes of cooking and fermentation which change their taste and flavor though not entirely destroying their forms, Avhieh has keeping qualities to a moderate extent, known commercially as miso, and generally used for making soup, is properly chargeable with a duty of twenty per cent, ad valorem, see. 6, ancl not witli a duty of forty per cent, as “preserved vegetables” or “a sauce,” par. 241. Same — Similitude: Because an unenumerated article is dutiable as being substantially similar to an enumerated article, it does not follow that another unenumerated article which is somewhat similar to the first, or is produced by a similar process, is dutiable as similar to the second.