Early that afternoon Darth came around to my office and explained that I would be
reporting to Carl, and that he would oversee the technical area and production. In other words, Carl would be taking over Ravi's job and my function would be to be responsible for the upper lab. Since the major responsibility of the upper lab was to develop “Quick Set”, there was no real change in my status. The promise from Darth in October that I would take over Ravi's position was not realized.
Then as Darth was leaving my office, Jay and Carl caught him and started discussing the memo. I joined in and took the opportunity to inquire about the “joint venture”.
“What about this joint venture business with Tenneland?” I inquired.
Darth became very nervous and annoyed. He said, “Arnold can't get anything right. I told him exactly what to say and he fouled it up.”
Darth then changed the subject, and our joint venture with Tenneland was never mentioned again.
That afternoon, Carl called everyone in the laboratory and announced that Ravi would no longer be active in the operations of the laboratory, but he would still be allowed to use his office because he had a contract with Gamma which was good for another six months. He also announced that I would be responsible for the laboratory, but that he would make all the decisions concerning research and production. His entire announcement left my position very nebulous and left me with the image of having no decision making power. I hardly had what could be termed management responsibilities, and although Carl had an elusive title, it was clear that he was taking over Ravi's duties. I was upset and depressed at the turn of events.
The next day was the annual Christmas party. I was not in a very jovial mood, and I was angry with Darth. By now, I knew it did no good to discuss anything with him because his word was worthless. The only consolation was that even though things had not worked out at Gamma Supplies, the work I was doing was also a benefit to Tenneland and the people there had treated me well so far. The party did not last very long and most people seemed more interested in leaving and spending time with their families. As I was leaving, Darth yelled across the room, “Russ, would you like to come down to my farm for Christmas dinner. Buzz and John are coming.”
I had already mad a commitment for Christmas with Anita's sister the prior evening on the phone, and I no longer felt any obligation to try to further my career at Gamma Supplies. I couldn't help feel that Darth already knew that I had a prior commitment when he made his belated offer.
I just said “No thank you, I already have other plans.” This type of
“scheduled conflict” would also become a common occurrence. Several years later, I would read an article about "psychological double-binds" or "no win" situations. These conflicts which have "no win" solutions are believed to cause schizophrenic behavior.
Several other changes became became apparent the week following Christmas. John was no longer working in the upper laboratory, but was now located in the lower lab out of my sight. He also now reported to Jay Wells. Buzhoha Yazzi had moved to the upper laboratory and was now working where I could see him. The net effect was the John and Buzz had switched positions. With the movement of Buzz to the upper lab, I was able to converse with him more and find out a little about the work he was doing.
One day while I was trying to make conversation with Buzz, he exclaimed, “Oh, I want to apologize for kidding you about not having any children. I didn't know your wife couldn't have any.”
At first I just accepted his apology and then after a moment of thought I said, “How do you know that?!”
Fuzzy calmly replied, “Darth told me.”
Now I was confused. How did Darth know? The only explanation I could think of was that the evening Anita and I went to dinner with Paul Johnson and his wife, Anita had discovered that Paul's wife had a similar medical problem and Paul had told Darth about Anita's problem. But why and how did that conversation go from Paul's wife to Buzz? It did not make sense, but how else could Buzz have known.
I was still unhappy about changes that had taken place so I decided to talk to Arnold Cline. Arnold was receptive, listened and then sympathized by saying it was difficult on a person when he didn't know where he stood. He said it with such understanding that I got the feeling my predicament was definitely deliberate. As we concluded our conversation, I mentioned something about maybe things would be better now that Ravi was fired.
With that Arnold said, “See what we had in mind?” The he paused as though he had something wrong and continued. “Not that we had it planned or anything.”
Of course it had been planned, but I didn't know why he didn't want me to think that. The only thing I could think of was the image of a fly-by-night outfit we were presenting to the courts did not entail planning strategies, but surely he was aware that I knew better that that! I left his office feeling the same way I felt after one of my futile conversations with Darth.
January 1977, began the new year much the same way the previous months had been. It was decided that the new “Rapid Set” needed a formal quality control sheet with instructions to be available to the customer for use of the product, Since I was responsible for the development of the product, I felt I should draw up the information on the Quality Control Sheet since it contained product specifications. Instead, Darth decided Jay Wells should do it. Jay had a copy of the Better
Supplies “Fast Set” specifications from which he copied the form and then put Gamma Supplies's name and logo on it.
I was then given the job to test the directions to see how reproducible the test results were. To do this I requested each member of the laboratory to try out the new instructions and I would collect the data. John, Jeff and Buzz responded by attacking me for writing such poor instructions. Then they questioned, bickered, and argued over every little point. It took two weeks of fighting and hassling to get done what should have been done in a couple of days. Lost in all the confrontation was the fact that Jay, not I, had copied the Better Supplies document and had decided what to include in it. And since Darth had to approve everything, Darth had to have given his OK.
Darth's involvement and presence in the laboratory suddenly became noticeably less conspicuous. In fact, the only time I saw him was when he told me that he, Ravi and I were scheduled to give depositions on January 19.20. and 21 concerning the litigation with Better Supplies. When he told me, I thought it was pretty stupid to have Ravi give sworn testimony a month after he had been fired. And I really did not want to testify for Gamma Supplies at that point because I was not happy with the changes that had been made and the pay raise I had been told I would be getting at the beginning of the year had not materialized. The latter point was quickly explained away by accountant Ralph Sampson, who said Carl was handling all the raises in the lab except mine. Mine was being handled by my arch nemeses Darth. He explained that Darth had handled all raises the previous year, and he had been tardy then too. As had become a standard practice at Gamma Supplies, I was given the explanation that this occurrence too was a normal practice. And, as usual I was not happy.
In late January, I was told by Carl what Jeff and Buzz's raises were to be and that I would tell them of their increases. He also explained that Darth would handle my raisewhen he got around to it. I dutifully told Jeff about his salary increase and then I told Buzz. Both were less that happy and I was left in a position of defending salary increases that I had no say in determining. In my previous job, I gave evaluations of the technicians that worked for me, then their salaries were determined by upper level management based in part on my evaluation and then I informed the employee of their pay raise. I was also told in general the procedure which was used to arrive at the pay raises. At Gamma Supplies I had to face Buzz's hostility and questions for which I had no answers since I had no input in how the raises were determined. Again I was put in a position of being on the defensive. This time I had a basis for comparison in the procedure used to give raises.
I also had no way of evaluating Buzz's performance, but the fact that I knew nothing about what he was doing was enough to convince me that he was not doing a satisfactory job. Another irritating factor which indicated that Buzz was not doing a satisfactory performer was the amount of time he spent talking on the phone. He would get calls from his wife at least three times a day, and frequently someone would have to scurry around the lab to find him. He spent on the average one to two hours a day talking on the phone! When I discussed this problem with Darth, he acted unconcerned and casually asked, “I wonder whom he talks to?”
I tried to get copies of the phone call records from the people in the business office, but I was told such records were not kept.
I said to Ralph Sampson, “then anyone can pick up the lab phones and call Hong Kong and no on will know?!”
The answer was affirmative! Buzz could be talking to someone in Iran and it would be fine. I knew that couldn't be true, but I had no way of getting the phone records.
Chapter II
'The great masses of the people .................will more easily fall victim to a big lie
than to a small on. - Adolf Hitler
In late January Darth gave his deposition. It was held in downtown Milwaukee in the offices of a local law firm. Carl Host and I attended along with Gamma Supplies' attorney Dan Gane from a Chicago law firm. The Better Supplies' lawyers were Cruz Little and Barry Champs from a Dayton law firm. Gamma Supplies was too small of a corporation to have in-house lawyers and the federal judge presiding over the case in Chicago's United States District Court had made a ruling early in the case that Better Supplies could not have their in-house attorneys to handle the case because there was to be an exchange of proprietary and confidential technical material in the case. Therefore both sides had hired outside council. That decision had been a major victory for Gamma Supplies because it limited Better Supplies ability to carry out an effective technical attack on Gamma Supplies' position. At the time of the that decision, I thought Gamma Supplies had been extremely fortunate to have won such a ruling and I was to later learn it was crucial in the course of the trial.
Darth arrived late as usual. I had not seen Darth for several weeks and I was a bit surprised when he came in the room looking very tan and wearing a very business-like three piece, blue pin-strip suit. His attire was quite different from his usual ski sweater and cleated cowboy boots that he wore around the office. I was also curious as to where he had gotten such a deep tan. As I sat there and listened to him give his deposition, I laughed to myself because it was such a fabrication that it was ridiculous, but it was the story line which had to be pursued to win the legal battle. The first day ended and Darth, Dan and I all agreed things had gone well, but we knew there were still a few items that needed to be gone over for the next day.
During the second day of questioning, Cruz Little asked the one question I had been waiting for.
Little: “There's no joint venture, anything like that between Gamma and Tenneland
Darth: “Mm-mm”*
Little: “It's just a manufacture-customer relationship?”
Darth: “Right”
Darth's first answer was barely audible, but it was still a “no” and then Little let him off the hook with the perfect follow-up question. What luck!
When noon rolled around we all decided to take an hour for lunch and then reconvene. At that point Cruz Little, Darth and Dan Gane asked me to leave the room while they chatted. I felt the request was a little unusual, but I dutifully left. As I closed the door behind me I stood there in the hallway and contemplated ease dropping on the conversation going on in the room. I wondered what could be so important that I couldn't hear it. After all, this was a legal proceeding. I decided to head to lunch, but to this day I wish I had listened
_________________________________________________________________________
* The first transcribed copy of the deposition shows Darth's answer to the first question to be “Mm-mm.” The official version shows it to be “No.”
The second day of testimony delved into the technical aspects. Mr. Little asked Darth to draw some chemical structures on a piece of paper which could be included in the deposition. Darth scrawled some crude structures on the paper as if he were barely aware of what had been going on in the lab. Darth had a B.S. Degree in chemistry, he had worked in and had been in charge of Gamma's lab for over ten years and I had given him detailed reports with structures on my work. We had discussed the structures, and now he was acting like a novice and as if he had never seen the structures before. I was concerned he was overacting. I was also beginning to wonder if Darth thought I didn't know what he was doing. After all, he had such a condescending attitude toward everyone. I decided for my own good, I had better find out.
Following Darth's testimony that afternoon, he, Dan Gane and I packed up the
documents and proceeded to leave the building. There was a sense of relief that the grind of two days of questioning was over. I jokingly said, “Darth, from the looks of those structures you drew, I'm going to have to teach you some organic chemistry.”
Darth stopped, turned and glared at me, and with a slightly red face said, “you better watch your step, BOY!” There was heavy emphasis on the BOY. Apparently there was no longer a need to explain things like the building fences lecture he gave me in our first meeting.
My question about whether Darth was aware that I knew he had perjured himself had been answered, but equally important was his reaction to even my slightest suggestion that I knew. Given Darth's lack of character and given his strong reaction my comment evoked, I felt like I was talking to a Mafia Don rather than my boss and a partner in the legal battle against Better Supplies. Actually, I wasn't afraid of Darth, but I was becoming fearful that I was involved in a nefarious scheme being run by some really powerful people. And I didn't know who those people were. As we continued down the hall, I was still thinking about Darth's reaction.
I barely had time to get back to the lab and think about what had transpired
when it was time to attend the next management meeting. The third meeting was held at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club and served as a mid-winter break from the rigors of Chicago winters. The meeting was suppose to center on a scenario of the self-made man who had been a successful in the business and financial worlds and who was a hard line conservative. Mr. Haws, as he was called in the story, was a true believer in the malevolent dictatorship, and he acted totally in a very short term manner. Darth embraced his techniques, which was a complete reversal of our first meeting when Gamma Supplies was presented as a long term, people oriented company.
We only spent a short time on the analysis on the Mr. Haws' techniques before went on to the subject he really wanted to talk about; firing employees. Darth went great lengths to detail the procedures which had been reportedly used to terminate a Gamma Supplies' sales rep from Louisiana. The procedure called for making Darth aware of the problem and then having him and the Clines review the situation. Finally, they would observe the person and make the decision. The bottom line was that no on but Darth Korey could decide to fire anyone. This seemed reasonable to me, but I couldn't help but wonder why he went to such great lengths to emphasize it.
What the Darth firing procedure meant is that I could not take any corrective actions in the laboratory because I had almost no say or power in terminating anyone. It had already been established that I had no say in determining personnel salaries. So, despite all of the showy announcements in the lab., I had absolutely no power.
On the plus side, since the firing procedure had been made a policy at the management meeting, Presumably no one else had any power in firing someone. This laborious review procedure did not fit into what one salesman had termed Gamma Supplies revolving door policy. Other that providing some time away from the lab in a nice atmosphere, the meeting was just another of a series of disappointments.
Darth's January testimony had raised some questions about our technical defense
against Better Supplies. Since Ravi's deposition never materialized and my testimony had been postponed until late March, it gave me time to do some work on the technical issues which were still no solidified. Two prominent issues had surfaced.
First, in one of the Better Supplies' patents involved in the litigation, there was an example of a phenolic resin which was made by a process very similar to the one Gamma Supplies was now using and it was possible that the material itself was very similar. We had to establish that the material in Better Supplies' Example 12 of the patent did not work as well as our material. Example 12, as we referred
to it, would become more and more critical to the Gamma's case as time went on. The second problem was a result of a statement Darth made during his depostion. He had claimed that in early 1976, one batch of phenolic resin had worked exceptionally well and he thought it might have been accidentally the same as the phenolic resin I had subsequently developed. Although this had little effect on the immediate litigation, it meant that I had to get a patent application filed as soon as possible. I also started working on the that application immediately.
The easiest way to remove the concern about Example 12 was to reproduce the work
that Better Supplies had reported. This required that I go back into the laboratory, make the phenolic resin as described in the patent and then evaluate it. I was not looking forward to going back into the laboratory. First, Buzz was always giving me a difficult time over one thing or another, and John and Jeff contributed to a hostile environment. In addition to the difficulties with Buzz, my perceived conflict with Jim hadnot subsided. This fact was reinforced by Jay Wells who informed me that John had made the remark, “Russ is going to pay for Ravi being fired”. And my situation was not helped by the fact that Ravi still came in and used his office from time to time and always held visible conference with John. The high visibility of all of the hostility made me wonder why no one seemed to care about the situation. Despite all of the distractions, I still managed to work on Example 12.
I was concerned about Example 12, because from what I knew about the chemistry
involved, I could not see why the phenolic resin described should not work. John had informed me he had tried to make Example 12 work, but was not successful. Since I was aware of Joohn's propensity to massage and slant data, I was still uneasy about the material in Example 12. Still, there were some differences between the material in Example 12 and the phenolic resin I had developed. I spent several weeks carefully following Better Supplies' directions, but I could not get the critical final results which they had reported. In essence, Example 12 did not work as reported. I was relieved and not totally surprised since patents will frequently contain fictitious examples just to cover and protect against all possibilities.
Since Example 12 was one of only two of its kind in the Better Supplies patents under question, I believed that this might be the case here.
By now I was fully convinced that my only purpose at Gamma Supplies was to provide a technical base and testimony to defeat the Better Supplies' patents. I decided to push for as many concessions as I could get before my scheduled testimony. The first thing I wanted to do was to add a new person in the laboratory to break up the John, Buzz, Jeff cabal and to upgrade the technical abilities in the laboratory. To that end, I requested that I attend the ACS meeting in March and recruit a new chemist since I was suppose to be “building a laboratory".
Darth's reaction to my request for a contract took a strange and totally unexpected
twist. After our conversation, Darth's attitude toward me became childish to the point of being ridiculous. At first, he would just refuse to acknowledge me when I would walk pass him at work.
Then, things at work became more absurd. First, it was customary at Gamma Supplies for the secretary to circulate a birthday card for everyone to sign and then present the card to theto the recipient. On the day of my birthday, I did not receive a card. I knew it was not an oversight because when I joined the company, Chris, the secretary, had called me for my personal data which included my birthday. At that time, Chris explained to me that the data was used for such company rituals such as the birthday card. When I inquired with Chris as to why I hadn't received a card, she said Darth had stopped it.
More direct evidence of my isolation from the Gamma Supplies environment occurred the next day when all the laboratory personnel, the Clines's and Darth attended a dinner and a play which was paid for by Gamma Supplies. The event had been planned a couple of weeks in advance and George Landry, the lab coordinator for the event gave in advance of the event, the tickets for the play and then made sure to point out that Darth had assigned the seating arrangement.
The seating at dinner was random and Anita and I sat at a table with Carl Host and his wife. Darth arrived alone and late, and to my surprise came over to our table and sat down for dinner. The dinner time was spent talking about trivial subjects and Darth gladly chimed in with his opinions. However, he avoided talking directly to me and would not respond to any of my questions directed to him. I just sat there and thought how absurd it was for him to act like that.
After the dinner, we walked to the to the theater where the Gamma' laboratory
personnel sat in the center section of the first two rows, Darth and the Clines sat together in the upper right section of the theater. Anita and I had been given seats by ourselves in the upper center section! We were totally separated from all of the Gamma people. At intermission, some people with seats near the Gamma laboratory personal left and Anita and I moved down to those seats for the second act.
After the play, Jay Wells from Tech Services and his girlfriend, Carl Host and I with our wives went to a near-by club for a drink. During a conversation, I commented to Carl about what a nice time Anita and I had at the Club Tennis Valentines Tennis Party and how it was a shame that he and his wife had been unable to attend. Carl's wife was surprised and turned to Carl and said, “What tennis party were we invited to”?
Carl didn't know what to say and finally after a long period of silence he told her to forget about it and that it wasn't important. But it was important to me it told me that Carl never considered going to the tennis party, and for some reason he was avoiding all none work related social interactions between him, his wife and Anita and me.
I was not surprised when Darth quickly agreed with the trip and the plans to
hire someone new since Darth's tactics were always to agree at first and then latter change his direction. Also the ACS meeting was in mid-March and anyone I recruited could not be hired until at least April which was well past my scheduled deposition date. I went ahead and made arrangements and looked forward to the trip to New Orleans.
My second plan of attack was to befriend Carl Host and get his support for my efforts. I wanted to get to know him better so I invited him and his wife over for dinner. He refused with little or no excuse. I then invited him and his wife to join Anita and me at a social tennis gathering at La Club. Carl had told me he played tennis and I thought the invitation would be hard to refuse. Carl said he would check with his wife and then let me know. At last I thought I was making progress. Several days later, Carl informed me that his wife did not want to attend the tennis social. At that point I gave up trying to socialize with Carl and his wife.
My third plan of attack was to press for a long-term contract similar to the one Ravi had. Although the contract would not provide me with any job security, it would provide me with an income should my worse fears be realized and I did have to find another job. Darth's reaction to my request for a long-term contract was predictable. At first he said he thought it would be a good idea and even gave me a small pamphlet on writing an effective contract. This fit the pattern of Darth initially agreeing to something and then latter doing an about face and doing just the opposite. And this time was no exception.
For the next two evenings, I read and studied the pamphlet on how to write an effectivecontract and what to include in such a document. The third day I went in and told Darth that I wanted to discuss some of the items to be included in the contract. Darth was succinct and to the point. “The Cline's and I feel we should be able to walk in and fire anyone on a moments notice. There will be no contract.” End of conversation!
I left Darth's office wondering what ever happened to their elegant firing procedure that Darth had spent a half a day outlining at the previous management meeting. Of course, by now I was accustomed to double standards at Gamma Supplies. There was on set of rules and conventions that applied to everyone else and a separate set of rules that applied to me. Their failure to negotiate a contract with an employee who they were counting on for the future of Gamma Oil confirmed what I already knew. My job was solely to assist in their legal battle with Better Supplies.
In retrospect, the most interesting thing about the evening was my wife's reaction to everything. On the drive home, I said “Did you see how Darth acted toward me?”.
“Yes”, she replied.
“I mean he wouldn't say a word to me”.
Anita said nothing.
“And Carl never did ask his wife about going to the tennis party with us,” I continued.
Again, Anita said nothing. She also never commented on our being separated from
everyone else at the play. Her lack of comments on the situation puzzled me, but it was late and since we were both tired, I dropped the subject.
Early the next week, Carl came into my office and told me I would be getting an 8%
raise (the same as Buzz and Jeff) which increased my salary to the figure Darth had originally mentioned during myprimary interviews at Gamma Oil. I was not told how the figure was arrived at, but I was given the usual amount of verbal praise and was told how the Clines and Darth thought I was doing an excellent job. I thought the raise, which I was suppose to get back in January being given to me because my deposition in the lawsuit was scheduled in two weeks. If anything, the timing of the raise mad me angry.
Anita and I were getting back on our feet financially, and we had reached a point where we able to save some money. Since we able to live on our combined salaries prior to my raise and since Anita had a tendency to spend “extra money”, I decided to open a separate savings account and deposit the net of my salary increase in the new account without Anita's knowledge. As far as she was concerned, I was still making same salary.
I thought that we should accumulate as much savings as possible for the inevitable change of jobs and relocation. I went to the same bank where we had our checking and joint savings account and opened a second savings account in my name only. I gave the teller my work address on the application and took great pains to explain to her that under no circumstances did I want the new savings statement going to my home address. She assured me that the joint account statement would go to our home, and the new single name account would go to my work address. I left the bank feeling relieved that I did not have to explain my raise to my wife. What I did not realize was that I had so much conflict at work that I was changing my relationship with my with wife to avoid any more stress in my life.
The week prior to my departure to the ACS meeting, we had our fourth management
meeting. I didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be the most critical meeting I was to attend while I was at Gamma Supplies. The business scenario we were given to review was titled, “Decisions at Zenith Life,” and we were asked to pick from four candidates the man best suited to become president of The Zenith Life Company. Darth came to the meeting and acted out each of the fictional candidates in “interviews”, and then we discussed the merits for each man becoming the new president.
Next, Darth handed out a sheet called “How to Spot a 'Comer'”. The article was a list of thirteen items that managers should look for in subordinates who are to be promoted. The list was the exact same one Darth had read to us in the first management meeting in September. I later checked and found that even the order in my original notes was the same as in the article. At the meeting, I knew we had previously discussed the the items on the list, but I was amazed that no one commented on the fact that we had covered this before. My first reaction was that no one wanted to embarrass Darth, but when no one mentioned it at lunch when Darth was not present, I became baffled. Surely someone else must have recognized that we had covered this material before. What I did not know at the time, was that the purpose of repeating the list at the meeting, was to test my memory. And Darth's absent at lunch was no accident. Had all the induced stress I had been subject to been effective in erasing/altering my memory? Had the programming of my testimony been effective?! The list testing my memory said "yes" as far as my "captors" were concerned.
The afternoon session took on the typical farcical atmosphere that exemplified most of the meetings. Darth spent a couple of hours talking about supernatural acts and mysterious happenings. He went to great lengths telling us about his use of a divining rod to locate water on his land and how he and his brother use to play hide and seek for nickels. One brother would hide a nickel in a house room and the other brother would then locate the hidden nickel by holding a nickel and a bent coat hanger in his hand. The coat hanger would then point to the location of the hidden nickel! Darth of course presented this in all seriousness. Maybe he thought I should hire a mystic for the laboratory to solve the technical problems.
It did not immediately occur to me that there was nothing to show Darth
had lectured at great lengths on the ludicrous and evil (Biblically speaking) topic of mystical forces. I doubt if he learned that subject in business school. I did retain copies of the “Zenith Life” and “Spot A Comer” articles which were legitimate topics for a management meeting. But there was little evidence of the farcical topics we covered at most of the meetings.
That weekend I departed for New Orleans to attend the ACS meeting , but before I left
Darth informed me that Carl would be joining me to help me recruit the new scientist. Although I had no objection to Carl's presence at the meeting, I did not see what he could contribute in terms of recruiting a scientist. More importantly, I had been looking forwardto spending a few days away from any Gamma influence. I was also looking forward to see-ing some old friends and socializing with them. With Carl there, I would have to modify some of my plans.
The recruiting at the ACS meeting was laborious and exhausting. Most of the
candidates came to the interview thinking that Gamma Supplies, must be located in the New Orleans area and they became quickly disinterested when they learned the job was in Chicago, IL.
Carl showed up for the second and third day of recruiting a demonstrated a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the job at hand. By the end of the third day, I had found three good candidates that I thought were worth actively pursuing. Carl seemed satisfied and he would be leaving on business on the next day. That meant I would get a couple of days to relax and enjoy the professional meeting.
The weekend prior to my scheduled deposition I flew back to Chicago feeling somewhat relieved and freshened. The following Monday when I reported back to work, I was informed by Darth that the Better Supplies' attorneys were going to take a deposition of a Tenneland person located at the Summerfield plant. Darth informed me that he, Dan Gane and I were going to be present during the testimony.
The next morning I was on a plane to Summerfield, Ohio. We met with the Better Supplies attorneys for lunch and then proceeded to an office to await the arrival of the yet unidentified Tenneland witness. My feeling was that Paul Jones, the plant chemist was the man Better Supplies should be talking to, but I knew the witness could not be him because he had been transferred to Atlanta, GA a couple of months earlier. At the time when I was told that Paul had been transferred, I thought that at least in part the reason for the transfer was to make the process of obtaining his testimony difficult.
Robert Graham, the plant manager at the Tenneland Summerfield facility finally showed up to give his deposition. His testimony only lasted a couple of hours and it revealed nothing. He expressed ignorance of everything of real interest to Better Supplies' case, and gave only superficial answers to the questions that he did know something about. The day concluded with Better Supplies' attorneys learning nothing new, and I left thinking Gamma Supplies and Tenneland had pulled another fast one in the legal battle.
Darth and Dan decided I should fly back to Chicago with Dan Gane and then we would drive from the airport together. The time together would give us a chance to discuss our strategy and Dan could prep me for some of the more difficult questions.
During our discussion on the drive from the airport I brought up an example from another Better Supplies' patent that was not directly involved in the litigation. I told Dan thatthe material was very similar to that in Example 12, about which we were concerned, and that due to some differences, maybe that example would work whereas I had not been able to make Example 12 work. No one had ever mentioned this other example, and if Better Supplies' attorneys inquired about that example, it could potentially greatly weaken Gamma Supplies' position which was more and more becoming based on the fact that Example 12 did not work. I was very concerned that Cruz Little would question me on that example, and I wanted some advice as to how to handle that kind of attack. Dan did not answer my questions. If fact, he just ignored me as if he knew that subject would not be brought up. Since Dan had coached me on other subjects, his failure to respond in this instance told me not to worry about it. But I couldn't help wonder why he was not concerned about that example. This was a technical issue at stake and not some legal maneuvering. Since I was
Gamma Supplies' one and only expert technical witness, I had a lot of concern over this second example. But, I could not get Dan to say anything.
One comment that Dan did make bothered me even more. He said he was Gamma Supplies attorney and did not represent me. That sounded strange to me since I was a Gamma Supplies' employee, and he seemed to be saying I was on my own or that I could get my own attorney. Of course, I couldn't afford to do that.
That evening at home I did a lot of soul searching. Something was drastically wrong, but I didn't know what. The next morning I was suppose to go in and testify on behalf of Gamma Supplies. Since the technical issues were in the grey area and were not black and white,I could support Gammma Supplies' position or I could sink the whole Gamma Supplies' defense. It was really a matter of which side I wanted to take.
The non-technical issues were likewise unclear and rather muddy. While Gamma Supplies had presented to the courts and Better Supplies the image of a small company that had accidentally stumbled into Better Supplies' area of patent coverage, I was well aware of Tennelands participation and had other evidence that Gamma Supplies attack on the Better Supplies patents was well planned and orchestrated. One document I was given was a letter from Better Supplies' attorneys dated April 1976, which stated that Gamma Supplies should seek legal counsel because of the legal action Better Suppliesw was pursuing. However, in my snooping around in the lab, I had come across a lengthy letter from Dan Game to Rave, Darth and Arnold Cline, dated October 17, 1975. The letter detailed a complete strategy for defeating the Better Supplies patents. In fact, on page 8, Dan states:
“....it might be to Gamma's best interest to take license thereunder at a very nominal paid-up royalty, since a nominal royalty might be more
economical in the long run than defending a patent infringement
lawsuit.....”
However, the actions of the people at Gamma Supplies supported the story that Gamma Supplies had just stumbled into the whole affair, and that was the story I was suppose to present. One thing I was sure of was that the litigation had industry wide implications and a lot of people besides Gamma Supplies would benefit if the Better Supplies patents were broken. Regardless of my status at Gamma Supplies, it was in my best interest of my career to support the Gamma Supplies cause. I could not let my intense dislike for Darth and the Clines be the deciding factor. I had to believe that more rational people were behind the orchestrated attack on the Better Supplies' patents and that in the long run, it would best for me to give a supportive testimony.
However, Darth's condescending attitude toward me should have been a warning that maybe the people who were behind the orchestrated attack on the Better supplies patents were NOT SANE and RATIONAL. The ideas that I might be dealing with CRIMINALLY INSANE people did not cross my mind at the time.
There was one other consideration in deciding what to do about my testimony. Dan Gane had explained to me that the deposition was a preliminary questioning procedure from which the attorneys extracted information which they used for questioning during the actual trial. He did point out that in cases where a witness could not appear for the trial the deposition could be presented at the trial as that witness's testimony. Since I saw no reason why I would not be able to appear at the trial, I believed my deposition would not be my final word in the legal proceedings. Thus, Gamma Supplies would still need my services.
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For anyone reading this story, I have a question: What would you have done? I can tell you that you are missing one critical piece of information that I didn't have either at the time of the decision.
My deposition took place on March 30, 1977. The official document states the
following:
“Deposition of XXXXXXX X. XXXXX, called for examination by the Plaintiff,
under and pursuant to the Federal Rules and Civil Procedure, pursuant to
notice, before Moneen L. Behtea, a Notary Public in and for the state of
Wisconsin, at 250 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the
30th day of March 1977, commencing at 9:30 o'clock in the morning.
APPEARANCES:
DEWEY, CHEATEM and HOWE by Cruz Little, Esq., and J. Barry Champs, Esq. appeared on
behalf of the plaintiff.
Fried, Wezel, and Gane by Dan Gane, Esq.
Chicago, Illinois 606033 appeared on behalf of the defendant.
Also present for the plaintiff:
Robert L. Laity
Jane Bitzen
The last two people listed for the plaintiff are scientists form the Arthur D. Little Consulting Company who were there to determine my technical competency. During thelunch break of my first day of testimony, they informed Cruz Little that I was competent and that they could not be of any help so they left after the lunch recess.
The questioning initially concentrated on my education and industrial background and quickly progressed to my introduction to Gamma Supplies and the foundry industry. I answered all questions strictly in line with the Gamma Supplies story and avoided all taboo subjucts such as Tenneland.
The afternoon session quickly progressed into a discussion of the technical issues andthe phenolic product being manufactured by Tenneland for Delta Oil. At this point I answered that I had no knowledge of what Tenneland did because Ravi Sardess and Carl Host handled that end of the business. All I ever saw was the phenolic resin product that arrived at the Gamma Supplies' plant. As the questioning continued, Cruz Little started to delve into the Gamma “Rapid Set” formulation and the effect of what I will call a “polyol material”. The “polyol material” was the basis of the Ravi Sardess and Darth Korey patent, and its beneficial effects in the “Rapid Set” formulation were questionable. At one point I had generated data which showed the laboratory data John Mason had reported was not accurate and that the amounts of the “polyol material” in the formulation was way too high. I had shown the data to Darth and he was not pleased with it, because at
that time, the presence of the polyol material was a major element in the Gamma Supplies defense. Darth had taken the appeasement route and reduced the “polyol material” a small amount in the “Rapid Set” formulation. The change was not enough to make any significant performance difference. At the same time, he preserved the “polyol material” defense, but both he and I were well aware that the polyol material defense was very weak. I did not discuss the data with anyone else, and it did not appear in any of my monthly reports. Cruz Little was now probing in that area and I was uncomfortable so I asked for a short break. When the questioning resumed, Cruz Little started by asking questions on another topic. Just like that the problem disappeared and I was relieved that he had stopped
pursuing the “polyol material” subject.
As the questioning continued, it became more and more clear that the failure of Example 12 to work was a key issue. Mr. Little questioned me over and over again on how I ran the test, what possibly was wrong with the way I ran the test and why I thought Example 12 did not work. I was well prepared for his questions and had no trouble defending the Gamma Supplies position that Example 12 was a bogus example. Surprisingly, Mr. Little did not ask about the other patent example I had found which was very similar to Example 12. My fears concerning questions on that subject were not realized. Again, I felt a sense of relief.
After a day and a half of testimony, my deposition was concluded.
The next day I returned to the laboratory to face Jeff, John and Buzz whom I now referred to as the Three Musketeers. They acted in the laboratory as though they spent all their free time together. They told me they got up each morning and exercised at Club Tennis together and then they jogged together. Of course, their ultimate objective was to get rid of me and they made no attempt to hide that fact.
One day I got into an argument with Jeff over the installation of a dart board in the lab. Finally, after a heated debate, I said that there would be not dart playing in the laboratory. I went back to my office, sat down and looked through the doorway of the laboratory and saw John telling Jeff in a loud voice, “Now don't push it. Just do what I say and we'll get him.” By now such blatant hostility was just standard practice and I just shrugged it off.
My plans to hire a new person for the laboratory were also being thwarted. I brought Mack Mark, one of the chemists I had interviewed in New Orleans into Gamma for an in-depth interview. Things were going well until lunch time. Darth suggested that he, Jay and Carl join Mack and I for lunch at the Full Sails. I agreed. Mack was an intelligent, serious professional who was interested in learning as much as he could about Gamma Supplies during his visit.
At lunch time, Darth, Jay and Carl sat on one side of the table and Mack and I sat on the other side. Mack tried in vain to ask intelligent questions, but Darth, Jay and Carl were acting like they were the Three Stooges and repeatedly talked nonsense. I tried without too much success to make sense out of their actions, but I was helpless to try to save the interview. Mack left the lunch with a disappointed, confused expression on his face and I could only imagine what must have been going through his mind. I knew I would not be getting a new person for the laboratory. Mack was obviously annoyed and unimpressed by the “Three Stooges”, but there was little I could do to correct the situation. That afternoon before Mack left the site, I informed him he would be getting a formal offer from us. He did not respond very enthusiastically.
The following day I began discussing with Carl what kind of stipend would be best to induce Mack to accept our offer. Since Gamma Supplies had a poor benefits package, I thought it was best to give him a good salary offer. Carl agreed with me in principal and then suggested we offer Mack a starting salary that was equal to what I had received three years earlier when I started working in industry. I argued that his suggested salary offer was low, but Carl was adamant and proceeded to give me a lecture on being fiscally conservative. I didn't mention it, but apparently Carl never heard that you get what you pay for. Finally, Carl yielded a little and agreed to make Carl an offer for $2,000 per year more than what
he had originally suggested. I knew from the current job market that the offer was still ridiculously low, but I went through the motions and wrote up an offer and sent it to Mack.
If the clown act at lunch had not turned off Mack, the salary offer most assuredly would. I mailed off the offer knowing I was just going through the motions and that the offer would be rejected.
My lab work now consisted primarily of writing a patent application. Every other day Dan Gane would call to see how I was progressing and the days he didn't call, Darth would stick his head in my office to inquire how things were coming on the patent application. Other than that, I never saw Darth which was fine with me.
