Dwight v. Merritt

This was an action by an importer, the testator of the present plaintiffs in error, against a late collector of the port of New York, to recover an alleged excess of duty exacted on a cargo of iron rails imported from Pillau, Eussia, in June, ■ 1880.

The collector assessed a duty on- the merchandise at seventy cents per hundred pounds, under Schedule E, sec. 2504,- Eev. Stat., as “ iron bars for railroads or incline planes.” The importer claimed that the merchandise was dutiable at only $8 per ton, under the following provision of the same schedule: “Wrought scrap iron of every description:…