Clow trial enters second week

By MICHAEL SCHAFFER

OSKALOOSA — Clow Valve’s civil suit against Chevron USA, Diamond Oil Company and Oskaloosa Gas and Oil is now in its second week. Clow contends the defendants breached contracts and warranties, acted fraudulently, participated in fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, were negligent and are guilty of strict liability.

The heart of Clow’s lawsuit is the contention the defendants provided a product — Chevron food machinery extreme pressure grease — that caused corrosion of upper valve stems used in Medallion and F2500 fire hydrants produced between July 2002 and July 2004. Clow contends the Chevron FM extreme pressure grease used to protect the stem contained calcium acetate and absorbed water, allowing the moisture to come in contact with the metal.

Clow filed the suit in June 2006 and two months later instituted a valve stem, grease and o-ring change out program. According to Clow, the company has spent between $6 and $7 million to change out valve stems in some 55,000 fire hydrants, out of 113,340 fire hydrants sold.

The second week of the trial commenced Tuesday as the 11-member, three alternate jury listened and watched a five-hour videotape deposition by plaintiff witness Carl Ward. The trail is being held at the Mahaska County Courthouse and Monroe County Judge Annette Scieszinski is presiding.

Wednesday morning, plaintiff witness Dr. Angeline Cardis testified. Wednesday afternoon, plaintiff attorneys called two Clow Valve employees as witnesses: Peter Settini and Chad Harbour.

Settini testified he has extensive experience with fire hydrants and has taught and performed fire hydrant maintenance while working for various employers. Settini estimated he has worked on thousands of hydrants the past 15 years.

Clow hired Settini in 2005 and he is in charge of the outside sales force where he works with and trains the outside salespeople and promotes Clow products.

He told plaintiff attorney William Miller that Clow Valve has had complaints.

“Yeah, we’ve had complaints,” Settini said. “It’s very important to us to make sure every one of our products works.”

Settini said he has seen a black corrosion on the valve stems and a lack of threads on the top of the stems sent back to Clow. The black corrosion was something he had never seen before.

Settini said he tells customers they should regrease fire hydrants every six months.

Under cross-examination by defendant’s attorney Jason Palmer, Settini said he was not aware of any Clow documents that told end users they should regrease twice a year.

After Palmer produced a color photo of a Clow fire hydrant with the top off showing standing water in the lubrication chamber, he asked Settini if he had ever seen that before.

“No, I’ve never seen that,” Settini replied. Minutes later Settini told Palmer he has seen moisture or droplets of water in the lubrication reservoir.

Harbour came to Clow in August 2004 and is the engineer in charge of the change out program. He said he attended several meetings that dealt with the corrosion issue.

An exhibit offered by plaintiff attorney Dennis Johnson was Harbour’s notes from a meeting Clow officials and Dr. Mehrooz Zamanzadeh held on Oct. 28, 2005. Zamanzadeh concluded Chevron FM grease was the problem.

The grease absorbs water because of the acetate, Zamanzadeh stated at the meeting, according to Harbour’s notes from the meeting. Corrosion occurs where the grease is and is due to water absorption.

Harbour said based on Zamanzadeh’s findings, Clow decided to do a third valve stem collection. In late February or early March 2006, Clow realized they had a corrosion problem based on Zamanzadeh’s results.

Harbour said Clow decided to change out all the fire hydrants they manufactured in the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 because of the risk. Even though Clow did not use Chevron FM grease in fire hydrants they produced in the first half of 2002 and the last half of 2004.

Chevron grease changes from a white to a yellow to a gray to a black color, making identification difficult, Harbour said. Also, it would often be unknown if a repair had been performed leaving Chevron grease in the lubrication chamber, he said.

Harbour said Clow offered end users free parts and a $40 labor allowance to do the repairs. Some end users took Clow up on the offer, others did not.

“We regularly had to negotiate higher prices,” Harbour said.

The city of Portland, Ore., at first wanted $175.40 per fire hydrant they worked on, Harbour said. Eventually, Portland city officials agreed to a contract where Clow would pay a private contractor $75 per hydrant and the city $50 per hydrant.

Harbour said Clow has 50 different service agreements with cities and private contractors participating in the valve stem change out program. On average, Clow is paying $70 per fire hydrant to change out the upper valve stem, grease and o-rings.

Using the heavy, metal cutaway fire hydrant Clow has furnished to the courtroom, Harbour took the jury and attorneys through a typical change out procedure. The procedure consists of removing several bolts and nuts in order to get inside the upper half of the hydrant, photographing two sections of the hydrant, and removing and replacing three o-rings, the upper valve stem and all of the grease in the lubrication chamber.

Not all hydrant repairs have gone as smooth as the one Harbour performed for the courtroom Wednesday afternoon. Harbour said he helped with a change out on a hydrant in Bloomfield, and the brass operation nut would not turn until extraordinary force was applied to it. The valve stem that came out of that 2004 fire hydrant was badly corroded, he said.

Another issue Clow has encountered is when valve stems refuse to be lifted out of the hydrant and have to be cut in half, resulting in what Harbour called a “lollipop stem.” He said he knows of 20 instances of where that has happened.

And it’s not just fire hydrants in use, as Harbour told of one city that purchased 2003 cast year Medallion hydrants and had placed them in storage for later use. In Dec. 2006, the stems were removed and they exhibited corrosion.

The trial resumed today at 9 a.m. with Harbour on the witness stand.

Herald City Editor Michael Schaffer can be reached by email at mschaffer@oskyherald.com

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