Rust Engineering Company v. Lawrence Pumps, Inc., Civ. A. No. 72-1835-C.
| Citation | 401 F. Supp. 328 |
| Decision Date | 18 September 1975 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 72-1835-C. |
| Parties | RUST ENGINEERING COMPANY v. LAWRENCE PUMPS, INC. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Laurence S. Fordham, William J. Cheeseman, Foley, Hoag & Eliot, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.
Franklin N. Cunningham, Warner & Stackpole, Boston, Mass., for defendant.
This is a civil action for breach of contract and for breach of implied and express warranties which was tried to the Court. Jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332. Plaintiff Rust Engineering Company (Rust) is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware and defendant Lawrence Pumps, Inc. (Lawrence) is a corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Defendant is a manufacturer of pumps for industrial and commercial uses and applications. Plaintiff, prior to entering into the contract with defendant, had entered into a contract with American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) under the terms of which plaintiff was to erect a smelter acid plant in Arizona. The acid plant was intended to capture waste sulfur dioxide, a gas produced during the smelting process, and to convert it into sulfuric acid, a marketable product. The design and construction of the new plant was required to comply with state and federal anti-pollution regulations.
The subject matter of the instant controversy is a group of circulating acid pumps which defendant agreed to manufacture, deliver and install at the Arizona plant. The particular pumps involved here are vertical submerged pumps, i. e., pumps with the pumping elements submerged in the liquid acid to be pumped. In these pumps the pumping element was located at the bottom of a vertical shaft submerged in the liquid. The motor was located on the top of a column which contained the shaft and on a supporting plate which covered the opening in the vessel into which the liquid was to be pumped.
Plaintiff does not manufacture pumps itself, but follows the practice of obtaining them from outside manufacturers. Initially, plaintiff considered ordering the pumps for this project from the Lewis Pump Company, but ultimately entered into negotiations with defendant. The first meeting between representatives of plaintiff and defendant tool place at plaintiff's Pittsburgh offices in June 1969. In the course of this meeting the discussions covered the nature of the facility which would be used to capture the waste sulfur dioxide which was being emitted from sulfur stacks, the place and function of the pumps in this system, the type and number of pumps which would be needed and conditions and types of acid that would be handled.
Specifications for the pumps to be manufactured by defendant were prepared by plaintiff and sent to defendant and on or about July 7, 1969 defendant mailed plaintiff a written proposal for the manufacture and sale to plaintiff of nine sulfuric acid pumps which would conform to the specifications for installation in the smelter acid plant to be constructed by plaintiff for ASARCO. A purchase order was issued by plaintiff to defendant on August 6, 1969 for nine pumps. The purchase order described five of the pumps as being 8" circular pumps, two were described as being 2" production pumps and two were described as being 4" production pumps. The purchase order further provided that the pumps would be in accordance with specification 0447-8 which specification was attached to the purchase order.
The purchase order incorporated the specifications previously supplied to defendant by Rust and defendant's proposal letter. The fluid to be pumped by the drying tower pumps was described as 93% sulfuric acid and the fluid to be pumped by the absorption tower pumps was specified as "98.4% sulfuric acid." There was no mention in the specifications of the presence of any quantity of solid impurities in the acid. The purchase order adopted a suggestion by defendant contained in Option I providing for an alloy #20 increaser-elbow and an alloy #20 ceramic faced shaft sleeve, as well as defendant's suggestion in Option II for an alloy #20 casing and suction discs. The specifications also contained a "Process Guarantee" which was as follows:
The specifications also adopted the following from defendant's proposal letter:
Defendant manufactured the nine pumps and delivered them to plaintiff at Hayden, Arizona in the summer of 1970, after which the purchase price was paid. The circular pumps were placed in operation during the first week of May 1971 and shortly thereafter the 8" pumps developed lower sleeve bearing failures.
A service engineer of defendant arrived at the plant on May 13, 1971 at which time the pumps which failed were pulled out of the system and disassembled. It was discovered that lower shaft sleeves and the sleeve bearings and sleeve bearing bushings were almost totally worn away at points where increased clearances had resulted in wearing down the pump impellers and sleeve rings. Some of the shafts were so worn under the bearing sleeves as to indicate that the bearings had seized and the sleeves had rotated on the shafts.
It was also discovered in the course of disassembling the pumps that substantial quantities of a gritty substance were contained therein. The gritty substance was described by a project manager employed by plaintiff as follows: "It was a kind of reddish, grayish, blackish, multi-colored sort of sandy material." The witness testified that he observed it at the top of the bottom bearing bushings and casings and in the impeller. It was later determined to be silica and alumina.
I find that the cause of the destruction of the bearings was the abrasive effect of the silica and alumina suspended in the acid which was being pumped and circulated.
The pumps were put back into service and continued to operate with some sleeve bearing failures in the 8" pumps until June 1971, when a strike caused the shutdown of the plant. The strike was settled in November 1971 and when operations resumed additional failures occurred in the 8" pumps during November and December 1971 because of sleeve bearing wear.
I find that the parties intended that the acid in which these pumps were designed to operate would serve as a lubricant between two smooth cylindrical surfaces. Those surfaces were to be kept apart by a wedge-shaped film of lubricant which was to have three functions: that of being slippery and reducing friction; that of being strong enough to carry the load and keep the moving parts separated; and that of having an adequate flow to carry off the heat.
I further find that bearing failure can also be caused by the failure of the acid to serve as a lubricating film between the two cylindrical surfaces. I also find that in this case the reason that...
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