Majority — DANIEL J.
Syllabus
By .the Tariff Act of 1846, a duty of thirty per cent, ad valarm is imposed upon articles included within schedule C; amongst which are “clothing ready made and wearing appatxlof every description ; of whatever material composed, "made up, or manufactured, wholly or in part by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer.delivered the opinion of the court.
The plaintiffs in error instituted in the court aforesaid against the defendant an action of trespass on'the case for the recovery of an alleged excess of duties charged by the defendant as collector of the port of New York, and paid to him under protest by the plaintiffs upon certain goods imported by them from Havre in France, and described by them in the invoices and entries thereof as “ worsted shawls, worsted and cotton shawls, silk and worsted shawls, barege shawls, merino shawls, silk ' shawls, worsted scarfs, silk scarfs, and mousseline de laine shawls.” There appear to have been nineteen different importations by the plaintiffs, comprised within the description' just given, but a particular or separate enumeration of them is not necessary, it being admitted that the protest of the plaintiffs embraced the whole of them, and that the correctness or incorrectness of .the proceeding in reference to each of them depends upon the construction of the same statute. Upon the articles thus described, the collector charged the duty of thirty per cent-um ad valorem as being wearing anuarel within the meaning
Upon issue joined on the plea of non-assumpsit and under instructions from the court as to the import of the provisions of the statute of July 30th, 1846, a verdict was found for the defendant, and a'judgment entered in accordance therewith. This case is comprehended within narrow limits, and its decision must depend entirely upon the interpretation of those portions of the statute of 1846, designated as schedules C and D, as to the description and enumeration of the articles subjected to duties and the rate of impost prescribed by these schedules.
In schedule C, which imposes a duty of thirty per centum ad valorem, are comprised the following articles, in the literal terms of the law, “ clothing ready-made, and wearing apparel of every description, of whatever material composed, made up, or manufactured, wholly or in part by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer.”
By schedule D, of the same act, it is declared that an impost of twenty-five per centum only shall be levied on “ manufactures of sills:, or of which silk shall be a component material, not otherwise provided for; manufactures of worsted, or of which worsted is a component material, not otherwise provided for.”
Several witnesses were examined by the plaintiffs, with the view of showing that in a mercantile sense the term shawls, under which descriptive name the goods of the plaintiffs were entered, did not include “ wearirig apparel,” and a fortiori not wearing apparel either made up or manufactured wholly or in’ part by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer, and that therefore under the provision of schedule D they were subject to an impost of twenty-five per centum only as manufactures of silk or worsted, “ not otherwise provided for.” Countervailing evidence was adduced on the part of the defendant to show that, in a mercantile sense, and by generally received and notorious acceptation, and by the plain and even imperative language of the statute, shawls were established to be wearing apparel; and consequently came within the rates imposed by schedule C, and could not be brought within the description in schedule I), as articles “ not otherwise provided for.” The character- of the evidence, or more properly the points it was designed to bear upon, most plainly appear from the several prayers submitted at the trial, and by the rulings of the court upon those prayers.
Second. That if the jury s .áll find from the evidence that the shawls in question were, not, at the date of the said last-mentioned act, in a commercial sense, and according to the meaning of the term among merchants, either —
1st. Articles worn by men, women, or children “ made up,” or made wholly or in part by hand. 2d. Nor clothing ready-made, or wearing apparel “ made up,” or manufactured wholly or in part by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer. 3d. Nor manufactures of cotton, linen, silk, wool, or worsted, embroidered or tamboured in the loom, or otherwise by machinery, or with the needle, or other process; then in either of said cases the articles in question are liable only to a duty of twenty-five per centum ad valorem.
Third. That if the jury shall find from the evidence that the articles in question were charged, under the act of 1842, with duty as “ manufactures of combed wool or worsted,” “ manufactures of worsted, and manufactures of worsted and silk combined,” under section 1, subdivision 1 of said act, and as “ manhfac-' tures of cotton, or of which cotton shall be a component part under section 2, subdivision 2 of said act, then the articles -in question are, under the act of 1846, liable to a duty of twenty-five per cent, ad valorem, and no more.
Fourth. ' That if the jury shall find from the evidence that, at the date, of the passage of the said act of the 30th of July, 1846, the shawls in question were commercially known as “ manufactures of worsted,” or of which worsted was a component material,-and that they were not known in trade and commerce as clothing ready-made, or-as “wearing apparel” made up, or manufactured wholly or in part by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer, nor as articles worn by men, women, and children, made up, or made wholly or in part by hand, then they are chargeable with a duty .of twenty-five per cent, ad valorem, and-no more.
Whereuponhis honor, the presiding judge, refused so to instruct the jury in accordance with all or any of the said several prayers, whereby the plaintiffs, by their counsel, had prayed the court to instruct the jury.
And thereupon the counsel for the plaintiffs then and there
The counsel for the defendant insisted, as matter of law, and prayed the court to charge and instruct the jury as follows :
First. That shawls and scarfs suitable and adapted in the state they are imported, to be worn by Women on the person, as. an article of dress, and usually so worn by women in the .United States, are “ wearing apparel,” “ made úp ” or manufactured wholly or in part, by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, within the true meaning of schedule C, of the Tariff Act of the 30th of July, 1846, and are properly-chargeable with' the duty' of thirty per centum ad valorem, prescribed, by said schedule C.
Second. That shawls and scarfs of the description above-named are not the less ’wearing apparel, made up or manufactured wholly or in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, within the true meaning of the said schedule, though sometimes purchased by clothiers and tailofs to be made up into vests, dressing-gowns, and other garments, as testified to by- the witnesses for the plaintiffs in this case.
Third. That shawls and scarfs of the description above named are wearing apparel, made up or manufactured wholly or in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, within the true mean-of the said schedule C,- notwithstanding, at the date of the passage of the said act of July, 1846, they may not have been called or known by commercial men in trade and commerce by the name of wearing apparel.
Fourth. That whatever may-have been, at the date of the said act, the definition given by' commercial men to the term “ wearing apparel,” shawls and scarfs of the description above named are nevertheless wearing apparel, made up in whole or in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, within the true meaning of the said schedule C.
Fifth. That shawls or scarfs suitable and adapted in their state as imported, to be worn by women and children, of whatever material composed, having fringes added by hand to the body of the shawls after the same has come from the loom, with sticks or needles, or other such implements, although according to commercial usage and understanding that said articles arc not thereby charged in their commercial sense or acceptation, are articles worn by women and children made up or made wholly or in part by hand within the true’meaning of the said schedule C, and are therefore chargeable with the duty of thirty per centum ad valorem^, prescribed by said schedule C.
And thereupon his honor, the presiding judge, charged the jury in accordance with the several prayers in conformity with which the defendant’s counsel had insisted as matter of law.
And thereupon the counsel for the plaintiffs excepted to said riding of the court upon each of the said prayers.
In construing the provision of schedule C, we think that its meaning cannot be easily misconceived, if the rule of interpretation be drawn from the ordinary and received acceptation of its language, or from- any regard to the sensible and consistent application of its words. It is obvious, that by the phrase “ clothing ready-made, and wearing apparel of every description,” the legislature did not mean to limit the enumeration to such habiliments as were either by necessity or by a regard to comfort or utility required to be changed from their original shape or fashion, and reshaped and reconstructed in order to adapt them to the human body, or to the purposes of life. Such a construction would render the member of the sentence immediately following and connected with the former by the copulative conjunction, and designing to introduce a new class of subjects, altogether absurd, and wholly inoperative. It must be understood as being the intention of the legislature to add to “ clothing ready-made,” in the acceptation above given, every article-which in its design and completion and received uses, is an article of wearing apparel, and to comprise such article within schedule C of the act of 1846, no matter of what material composed, either in whole or in part, or by whom composed or made up, whether by the tailor, sempstress, or manufacturer. The question to be determined has no relation either to material, or process, or agent, but exclusively to the origin and purposes of the subject of the duty imposed as being in its design and in its finished condition “ wearing apparel.” Simply, in other words, whether shawls are wearing apparel.
By the several prayers pressed upon the Circuit Court for instructions to the jury, the object to which they are all directed has been the diversion of the jury from this the only legitimate
Another position pressed upon the Circuit Court ill behalf of the plaintiffs in error, as is shown by the evidence' and by one
“A stocking decked his brow instead of bay, A cap by night, a stocking all the day.”
According to the logic of the position last referred to, a stocking transferred into a night-cap is shown never to have been a stocking,- and therefore never wearing apparel, notwithstanding its primitive denomination, the design for which it was knit or woven; or the offices to which it may have been usually applied. '
To the rulings of the Circuit Court upon the prayers presented on behalf of the plaintiffs and defendants respectively, we deem it unnecessary to apply a separate comment. It is sufficient here to remark, that upon a deliberate examination of those rulings, in reference to the facts and features of the case, we accord to the former our entire sanction, as being coincident with the principles laid down in this opinion, and with a just interpretation of .those clauses of the statute undej color of which this action was instituted. We therefore adjudge that the decision of the Circuit Court be, and the same is hereby affirmed.
Order.
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record, from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court, that the judgment of the said Circuit Court in this cause be, and the same is hereby affirmed, with costs.