Clay v. Magone
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
At Law. Action to recover back customs duties. The plaintiff, on October 5 and December 12, 1887, and February 16, 1888, imported from Marseilles, France., into the port of New York 23 bales of celery seed.
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At Law. Action to recover back customs duties. The plaintiff, on October 5 and December 12, 1887, and February 16, 1888, imported from Marseilles, France., into the port of New York 23 bales of celery seed. This celery seed, pursuant to the decision of the treasury department, rendered March 23, 1887, and numbered 8,131, was classified by the defendant, as collector of customs at said port, as “garden seeds,” under the provision for “garden seeds, except seed of the sugar-beet,” contained in Schedule N of the tariff act of March 3, 1883, (Tariff Index, new, par. 465,) and duty thereon,…
1Opinion of the Court
1 j ACOMBE, J.,
(charging jury.') The method of fixing rales of duty, by varying them according to the uses to which articles imported may be put, is, no doubt, a very philosophical and logical way of classifying articles for duty *232under the tariff, but in practice it is at times extremely inconvenient; so much so that, unless the language of the tariff clearly indicates a plain intent on the part of congress that the article legislated upon should be classified according to its use, a court should be cautious in determining the rate of duty by the application of such test. Of course congress…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Ferry v. LivingstonSupreme Court of the United States · 1885
3Cited by1 opinion
- Dodge & Olcott v. United StatesU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York · 1891