UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

Soft wood boxes, imported from Sweden, containing parlor matches or safety matches, are not subject to duty under the Act of March 3, 1883, 22 Stat. c. 121, p. 488, § 7, p. 523.

Oberteuffer v. Robertson, 116 U. S. 499, affirmed and applied.

The defendant in error imported into the port of New York from Sweden 301 cases of matches known as parlor matches and ten cases of matches known as safety matches. The boxes contained about seventy matches each, and were made of very thin pieces of soft wood covered with paper and so constructed that the receptacle containing the matches fitted snugly into the cover like a drawer and could be slid out of the cover at either end for the purpose of withdrawing the contents.

The defendant, as collector, classified the soft wood boxes for duty separately from the matches, and liquidated the duties on the boxes at the rate of 100 percent ad valorem, the cost of packing not being included therein. The duty so levied on the parlor match boxes amounted to $315.43, and on the safety match boxes to $69.57.

The importer duly protested and brought this action to recover back the duties on the boxes paid in obedience to said assessment.

It was admitted by the counsel for the plaintiff in error that the undoubted effect of the testimony was to show that the clubjuris

Page 142 U. S. 605

surface on each box for producing ignition had for its sole object to facilitate the consumer's use of the contents of the box, and had no particular utility as a covering or protection for such contents.

The verdict was for the plaintiff. The defendant sued out this writ of error. clubjuris

Page 142 U. S. 606