The Dryline. Jack Grubbs
you’re up as soon as we return from recess.” Ed, a smallish man with Alan Ladd’s good looks, turned to Don, hand extended. “Hey, Don. Long time. How’ve you been?”
“Good, Ed. Guess it’s been since the Barry Colter ordeal.” He shook Ed’s hand.
“Yeah. Well, this one won’t have the same intrigue. Gruesome, though.”
Tom added, “I’m ready.”
Ten minutes later Tom was called to the stand; Don followed him into the courtroom and sat down in the back row. Approaching the bailiff, Tom nodded politely to the jury and Judge Pickering. He stopped at the witness stand and was sworn in. Tom sat down, looking quite comfortable. Ed walked directly to his witness. They began.
“Mr. Seiler, I’d like to ask you to introduce yourself to the court. Please begin by giving your complete name and tell them where you live.”
“Fine. Thomas Mannan Seiler. I live in Grimes County north of Houston, near Dacus, Texas. No streetlights, just an S-turn in the road.” As always, Tom surveyed the jury as he spoke. In addition to wanting to make eyeball-to-eyeball contact, he could sense the mood of the jury. Coming from all walks of life, juries had a natural bias to root for nice people. Tom came across nice. He never could understand why all lawyers and witnesses seemed lost on that fact. Assholes on the stand don’t do well.
“And please tell us of your educational background, your career pattern, and what occupation you are engaged in at this time.”
“Yes, sir. I grew up in San Antonio. Went to Northeast High School, now known as MacArthur. I went to the University of…”
His introduction seldom changed. He was born into a military family, enjoyed a close relationship with his parents and siblings, and suffered personal tragedy at the loss of a son in a boating accident and a brother in Vietnam. A bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering—magna cum laude—from the University of Texas and a master’s degree from the University of Houston preceded thirty-two years as an on-the-board mechanical engineer at NASA. He finished by stating that he was a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.
It didn’t take long for Tom to establish himself as a forensic engineering expert.
“What, then, is the function of a whip hose?” Ed asked.
Tom shifted in his chair, looking directly at Ed. He spoke with authority. “If I could, sir, I’d like to explain the full gas-dispensing hose system.”
Ed and Tom always orchestrated the ebb and flow of testimony prior to any court proceeding.
“Your honor, a full description would help the jury to understand the significance of Mr. Seiler’s findings.”
“Go ahead, Mr. Seiler.”
Tom began. “Well, if everyone in here were to go to a gas station today, I would ask each of you to look at the fuel hose. You would use the dispensing mechanism which has a nozzle that fits into the gas tank and a handle which, when depressed, initiates gas, under pressure, to flow into the tank. Next would be a relatively long section of rubber hose through which the fuel passes. But…,” Tom held up his hand as he continued, “slightly over three-quarters of the way up the hose there is a short mechanical device that virtually no one even knows exists.”
Don enjoyed Tom’s manner of teaching the jury.
Tom opened his right hand comfortably and used his thumb and middle finger to indicate a device four inches long. “It’s about this long and it’s known as a breakaway device.”
Ed Harvey intervened. “Your Honor, I have here the breakaway device that was attached to the hose on the day of the incident. I request that it be entered into evidence as plaintiff exhibit 24.” It was entered into evidence. Ed turned back to Tom. “Excuse me for a minute here, Mr. Seiler.” He then turned to the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will be asking Mr. Seiler to explain the breakaway device, but I do ask you to remember that the component that failed in this incident, and that is the key subject of this trial, is this, the whip hose.” Ed held a small section of black hose at eye level for all to see, and added, “And not the breakaway device.” He lifted the breakaway device to the same level. “We’ll get to the whip hose shortly. That being said,” he said and turned back to Tom, “Mr. Seiler, please continue by describing the purpose and construction of the breakaway device.” He gave it to Tom.
Tom rotated the device in his hand. “It’s made of a brass and aluminum alloy, with two sections attached together by an internal locking mechanism.” Tom pointed to the interface between the two opposite, yet identical, sections. “In addition to being connected to each other, each section connects back to hose. The end of one section is crimped to the long hose going to the gas tank,” Tom paused deliberately, then continued, “and the other section is crimped to that small section of hose Mr. Harvey described as the whip hose.”
“Your Honor, I would like to introduce…” Ed Harvey entered the actual whip hose in question as exhibit 25. He did not give it to Tom, but asked him to continue with his discussion of the device.
Tom did as asked. “The actual purpose of the breakaway device is simple. On occasion, a customer becomes distracted and inadvertently drives away with the nozzle still stuck in the gas tank. This is known as a drive-away event.” Darting eyes and a quick nod identified one of the jurors as a former drive-away culprit. Tom picked him out and gave an almost imperceptible nod of forgiveness. Good, got one on my side, he thought.
“When a drive-away event occurs, the breakaway device is designed to separate as the pulling force reaches approximately two hundred and fifty pounds.” He pulled on the two ends of the device. “As you can see, I don’t have the strength to pull them apart. But your cars do.” He gave the device to Ed and sat back in his chair. “When it does separate, valves inside each section close instantaneously to keep gasoline from escaping. The driver…” Tom glanced back to his drive-away juror, “has a gasoline hose trailing from his or her car, but everything else is safe. Life remains copasetic.”
Ed asked. “And is that how the breakaway device functioned in this case?”
Tom replied, “No, sir. Some three to four months earlier, a drive-away event occurred in which the breakaway device malfunctioned. It just didn’t separate, probably because the driver realized he still had the hose in his gas tank and stopped just as the whole system was being stressed. Because it didn’t separate, major stresses had occurred at critical locations along the whip hose itself.”
“Have you been able to analyze these stresses?”
“Yes, sir.” Tom pointed to an easel upon which rested a computer generated model on a poster board.
Ed Harvey looked to Judge Pickering. “Your Honor, I would like to have Mr. Seiler explain his findings at the easel so the jury can understand it.”
“Granted. Mr. Seiler, please step down.”
Tom walked to the easel. He paused just enough to adjust his tie. Tom began carving out, in layman’s terms, purely professional investigation and analysis.
“What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, are the results of a computer program called AutoCAD.” Over the years Tom had learned not to get too technical on engineering software. He kept it simple. “In a nutshell, AutoCAD, which stands for Automated Computer Aided Design, takes a model of a physical object, applies appropriate forces in the form of mathematical formulations, and develops a model of where the object would experience areas of stress. What you see here,” Tom pointed to the second of three graphic representations, “are color-coded stress concentrations. The colors in orange and red indicate the highest stress concentrations. Those are the areas which need the best structural integrity.” Tom waited for about half a minute before continuing the briefing. He pointed to the bottom graphic. “What the computer program can also do is show how the object would deform under these stresses. Take a look at this.” Tom showed the elongated whip