542 Opinion of the Court. which had been separated from crude oil by a skimming process, that is, by distillation sufficient to take off the more highly volatile elements,-but which was useless for commercial purposes until a further process of refinement had been undergone; and that a reasonable rate on such product was not more than two cents per hundred pounds in excess of the rates contemporaneously applicable to crude oil. Subsequent to this decision, tariffs covering "unrefined naphtha" were put in effect on the lines from Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Coffeyville, Kansas, and from Oklahoma producing points to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The product in that case was similar to the casinghead gasoline here in question. Both included the lighter ends or more volatile elements of crude oil; they were unfinished products and differed from ordinary gasoline of commerce in like respects. Presumably, this decision and these tariffs were known to and considered by the shipper and carriers when the tariff on unrefined naphtha was published. And before that tariff was put in, defendant's representative applied by letter to the carriers for a "seventeen cent rate crude unfinished naphtha" from Port Arthur to Keifer and from Keifer to Port Arthur. The carrier's representative testified that they were requested "to put in a rate on crude naphtha or unrefined naphtha or unfinished naphtha", and that he did not recall which. The United States suggests that the shipper did not disclose to the carrier that it intended to ship the product here in question under the proposed tariff. But the evidence negatives any purpose to deceive or defraud the carriers and shows that the purpose of the carrier was to put in a tariff covering the unfinished product referred to in the negotiations as crude unfinished naphtha, crude naphtha, unrefined naphtha and unfinished naphtha. The United States introduced evidence to show contemporaneous shipments by the Gypsy Oil Company of Opinion of the Court. 268 U.S. such casinghead gasoline to Port Arthur billed as unrefined naphtha and to Pittsburg billed as gasoline, and also shipments by that company and others of the same product to other places, billed as gasoline. But it was not shown that the carriers had published any tariff covering unrefined naphtha to Pittsburg or the other points. In the absence of a rate on unrefined naphtha, such shipments are without significance. There was nothing to show, and no reason to presume, that all classifications had been made that could be made in respect of the numerous products of petroleum, and of those referred to in the industry as gasoline of one kind or another. There being no rate on unrefined naphtha or opportunity to choose between the gasoline rate and some other rate, shipments of the product as gasoline had no probative value or tendency to show that the product was not fairly described by and included within the phrase "unrefined naphtha" in the tariff in question. The regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission, revised July 15, 1918, required liquid condensates from natural gas or from casinghead gas of oil wells, alone or blended with other petroleum products, having a vapor pressure of not more than ten pounds per square inch, to be shipped as "gasoline, casinghead gasoline, or casinghead naphtha". Unrefined naphtha was not mentioned. The description of the shipments as gasoline under these regulations had no tendency to show that the tariff rate on unrefined naphtha was not applicable. The purpose of the regulations was to require a disclosure of the character of the shipment, having regard not to rates but to the dangers to be guarded against. It was not an admission on the part of the defendant that the gasoline rate was applicable or that the shipments were not unrefined naphtha within the meaning of the tariff. The language of the regulation illustrates the use of the word "naphtha" to include the casinghead product. 542 Opinion of the Court. 'Naphtha" is a generic term and embraces the lighter or more volatile parts of crude oil down to and sometimes including kerosene. This takes in all the elements of finished gasoline. The words "naphtha" and "gasoline" are often used interchangeably to include the unfinished product of which the gasoline of commerce is made. The thing shipped was an unfinished product. It was taken to Port Arthur to be used to make gasoline. The evidence required a finding that it was naphtha. The insistence of the United States is that it was not "unrefined". The processes for refining crude oil in the production of gasoline include the separation and combining of various elements of the crude product, and are not limited to the elimination of impurities. The evidence is not sufficient to sustain a finding that the making of gasoline of commerce by the use of the blended or weathered casinghead gasoline shipped to Port Arthur did not involve refining, properly so-called. But even if the process was, as contended by the United States, a finishing and not a refining process, it is clear that the phrase "unrefined naphtha" in the tariff in question was not misleading and did not contribute to any deception or fraud. The thing shipped was not ordinary gasoline, and it was lawful to distinguish it by tariff designation and to make the specified rate applicable. The words employed describe the product with sufficient accuracy. The evidence was not sufficient to sustain a finding that the shipments in question were not unrefined naphtha. Motion to dismiss denied Judgment affirmed. SECOND RUSSIAN INSURANCE COMPANY V. MILLER, ALIEN PROPERTY CUSTODIAN, ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT. No. 362. Argued April 30, May 1, 1925-Decided June 1, 1925. After promulgation, in the earlier years of the World War, of a Russian ukase forbidding, under penalties, all Russian subjects to enter into any agreement or commercial relations with citizens of enemy countries and proclaiming all contracts with enemy firms at an end, an arrangement was made between a Russian insurance corporation, a German firm of Hamburg, which was its general agent for reinsurance business including that originating in this country, and a New York corporation, which was the German firm's sub-agent here and shared the commissions on the American business, whereby, in form, the New York corporation was substituted as general agent and entitled to the full commissions on the net premiums it collected. Thereafter, and before the United States entered the war, the American agent collected premiums on old business, but, instead of appropriating the full commissions to which it was thus nominally entitled, retained only the percentage which it would have had under the old arrangement and deposited the rest in a special account in its name. Later, it turned over the fund to the insurance company's trustee under the New York law. The fund was seized by the Alien Property Custodian as belonging to the German firm. Two courts below having found from the evidence that the change of agency was cclorable only, made to evade the ukase, and that the deposit was intended by all parties for the German enemies, Held, adopting that finding, (1) That the agreement by which the commissions were set apart for the German firm was valid by the law of the United States, as it was also proven to be by the law of Germany. P. 558. (2) That the insurance company, having consented that the German firm should have the commissions and they having been actually set apart accordingly, retained no legal interest entitling it to reclaim them from the Alien Property Custodian. P. 559. (3) Semble that comity does not require that extraterritorial effect be given to the Russian ukase so as to make illegal, transactions had in the United States between the insurance company and the New York corporation respecting their dealings with the German firm. P. 559. (4) Assuming that the payment was forbidden by the ukase, no principle of comity would entitle the Russian company to recover it back; the rule denying relief when both parties to an illegal executed contract are in pari delicto, would apply. P. 561. (5) A right to a fund in the hands of a depositary is not divested by the act of the latter in merely turning it over without consideration to a trustee holding other funds and securities for an adverse claimant. P. 562. 297 Fed. 404, affirmed. APPEAL from a decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a decree of the District Court which dismissed the appellant's bill, brought under the Trading with the Enemy Act to recover money seized by the Alien Property Custodian, and held by the Treasurer of the United States, as the property of a German firm. Mr. Albert P. Massey, for appellant. Mr. Hartwell Cabell, with whom the Solicitor General was on the briefs, for appellees. MR. JUSTICE STONE delivered the opinion of the Court. Appeal from a judgment of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirming a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, dismissing a bill in equity brought by the appellant, complainant below, under § 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Act (Act of October 6, 1917, 40 Stat. 419) to recover money seized and held by the Alien Property Custodian. 297 Fed. 404. The appellant, a Russian corporation, in 1913 established an office in the State of New York for the conduct of an American reinsurance business in that State. In order to comply with the law of the State and to qualify it to do business there, appellant deposited with the New York Life Insurance & Trust Co., as trustee under a trust |