Used mobile oil retains its character as oil and escapes classification as old discarded goods.

Used mobile oil retained the essential character of oil because the material showed it remained usable after refining and no finding was made that it had ceased to be oil. Applying noscitur a sociis, the entry for old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete goods was confined to goods that had become non-functional or non-usable, not to used oil still capable of use as oil. On that reasoning, used mobile oil did not fall within the taxable entry for old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete goods, and the revision failed.

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Issues: Whether used mobile oil retained the character of oil and, therefore, fell under the entry for oils of all kinds rather than under the entry for old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete goods liable to tax at the point of sale to consumers.

Analysis: The assessing authority recorded no finding that the purchased used oil had lost the character of oil. The material showed that the oil was used oil from which impurity had been removed by refining, and the oil continued to be usable as oil. The entry for old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete goods was construed in the light of associated words by applying the principle of noscitur a sociis, so that the expression covered goods that had become non-functional or non-usable. The cited authorities on used oil and on old discarded goods supported the view that used oil, so long as it retains the essential character of oil, is not covered by that entry.

Conclusion: Used mobile oil was not taxable as old, discarded, unserviceable or obsolete goods, and the revision failed.

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