
    ELIOT A. DE PASS ET AL., trading as A. S. LASCELLES & CO., v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [49 C. Cls. R., 382; 243 U. S. R., 625.]
    This suit is to recover the amount paid by the plaintiff sis import duties on merchandise shipped from Porto Rico to and received at the port of New York between December 10, 1898, when the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain was signed, and April 11, 1899, the date ©a which the ratification of said treaty was exchanged by said Governments.
    
      The court below decides:
    The island of Porto Rico did not, in law, become a part of the United States until on and after the treaty had been duly signed by both the parties thereto and the ratifications of the same had been exchanged.
    The right to exact duty upon merchandise imported from the island of Porto Rico to and into the United States prior to April 11, 1899, the date of the ratification and promulgation of the treaty between the United States and Spain, was within the meaning and intent of the tariff law of the United States.
    The decision of the court below is affirmed.
   Per curiam,

March 6, 1917.  