Herrman v. Robertson

Citations

• 152 U.S. 521
• 14 S. Ct. 686
• 38 L. Ed. 538
• 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2141

Syllabus

<p>An importation of goods into the port of New York in 1881 being classified under the first clause of Rev. Stat. § 2499 by the customs officers, as bearing a similitude to manufactures composed wholly or in part of the hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, the importer paid the duties demanded under that classification, — 50 cents per pound and 35 per cent ad valorem, — first protesting that the goods, were “ composed of hair and cotton only, and- as such should pay a duty of 35 per cent ad valorem, as a non-enumerated article under the second half of Rev. Stat. § 2499, being the highest rate of duty which any of the component material pays.” In an action brought by the importer to recover the alleged excess of duties so demanded and collected, Held, that this protest was defective in that it failed to point out or suggest, in any way, the provi-sion which actually controlled, and in effect only raised the question which of two clauses, under one or the other of which it was assumed that the importation came, should govern as being most applicable.</p>