United States v. United States Tel. Co.
United States v. United States Tel. Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an action to recover1 $542.30, with interest from January 17, 1865, alleged to be due to the United States, for duties on a quantity of telegraphic cable imported into the United States by the defendants. The article is composed of iron-wire and gutta-percha,
It is claimed, on the part of the United States, that, as there is not in the tariff acts any duty imposed on telegraphic cable, by that name, or by any commercial designation applicable to the thing itself, it is, therefore, a nonenumerated article, and, as such, liable to the duty of forty per cent, claimed. This view would be sound, and the article would be liable to a duty of forty per cent, if it were a nonenumerated article. But it is not a nonenumerated article, and, therefore, the twentieth section of the act of 1842 has no application to it. That section applies only where an article has not been otherwise provided for—that is, is not classed under a description contained in an enumeration of articles. Lottimer v. Lawrence [Case No. 8,521], The article in question here is described in the twenty-second section of the act of 1861, and the thirteenth section of the act of 1862, and is classed under the description contained in the enumeration of articles in those sections, as an article of which iron is the component material of chief value. In U. S. v. Clarke [Case No. 14,813], bombazine was not named in the tariff act of 1824. It was a fabric composed of wool and silk. The act imposed a duty of thirty per cent, on all manufactures of which wool was a component part (except worsted stuff goods and blankets); a duty of twenty-five per cent, on all manufactures of which silk was a component material, coming from beyond the Cape of Good Hope; a duty of twenty per cent, on all other manufactures of which silk was a component material; and a duty of fifteen per cent, on nonenumer-ated articles. The court held, that, under the act, bombazine was not a nonenumerated article, but that it was doubly enumerated. Yet, the only enumeration of it was by speaking of it as an article of which wool was “a component part,” or of which silk was “a component material.” So, here, the telegraphic cable is enumerated, by speaking of it as an article of which iron is “the component material of chief value.”
In the case of Morlot v. Lawrence [supra], which is relied upon by the plaintiffs to sustain their claim to recover in this case, the article under consideration—linen lustres. &c., composed of linen and cotton—was not enumerated. It did not fall within any of the articles specially described in any tariff act. It was, therefore, a nonenumerated article, and, as such, the twentieth section of the act of 1842 applied to it.
There must be a judgment for the defendant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES v. UNITED STATES TEL. CO.
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