Butler County steel company trial held in local courtroom unusual

A recent civil trial held in a local courtroom was anything but normal.

Butler County steel industry heavyweight ClarkDietrich Building Systems recently won a defamation and deceptive trade practices case that played out during what’s believed to be the county’s longest trial.

Beginning in September, jurors heard deliberations for about 11 weeks. The eight jurors and additional alternates were actually seated for 34 days during that 11-week time period, not including jury selection or attorney motions, according to the county clerk of courts office.

The jury also awarded the West Chester Twp.-based company one of, if not the largest, amount in a civil case in the county — a whopping $49.5 million.

The Butler County Clerk’s office doesn’t keep track of cases based on trial length or financial damages, but Clerk Mary Swain said the case stood out.

“What I can tell you is I’ve been with the court system almost 30 years… and in those years, I have never seen another trial where we’ve had an award that large or a trial last that long,” Swain said.

As a murder trial for Daniel French dramatically carried out upstairs in Judge Charles Pater's courtroom, a group of mostly women jurors nearby learned more than they probably ever thought they would about the commercial steel industry during the epic trial in Judge Keith Spaeth's courtroom.

A large group of 150 people were called for jury selection and were subject to questioning from multiple attorneys representing all parties. Eventually, the jury was whittled down to six women and two men. Four alternates were chosen — two men and two women.

Among the alternates was Terri Ballinger, judicial assistant to Judge Pater.

“Every day, they (jurors) all wanted to know what was happening in the French trial,” Ballinger said with a laugh. “I had to tell them, I don’t know. I am down here with you.”

During the long trial, the jurors — who were paid $10 a day — bonded and even had some fun, planning theme days and sending subtle messages to the attorneys to liven up the pace.

The jurors on certain days dressed all in black or other colors. Fridays were referred to as “flannel Fridays” and on some days, all jurors would dress in sports team clothing, including the Cincinnati Bengals and Ohio State.

Rick LoBuono, Spaeth’s bailiff who shepherded the jury during their tenure, remembered a day he won’t soon forget.

“My favorite was the day each of them showed up with a Red Bull during a particularly boring point in the testimony,” LoBuono said. When the jurors were seated, they all popped the can.

Ballinger said she believes the attorneys all got the message.

“You know we really didn’t want to be disrespectful or make anyone believe we weren’t paying attention, but we had to have some fun with it,” she said.

LoBuono said some of the witnesses were on the stand for several days and that some of the expert testimony was quite complex and could only be interesting to the most astute engineer or economist.

The judge said he couldn’t have asked for more attentive jurors.

“They showed up every day in a pleasant mood, they were attentive and really took their job seriously,” Spaeth said, noting the jurors were largely women in a case that hinged around the rust protection of interior steel studs.

“I tell you, I don’t know if men would have been as attentive if it was a trial about the composition of lipstick,” the judge said.

Spaeth also praised his staff who pitched in taking care of other matters while he was on the bench for the trial.

The judge has presided over several high-profile criminal cases and now a high-stakes civil trial. Which does he prefer?

“Oh, I like them all,” he said with a smile.

Ballinger said while she tried to get out of the jury duty at first, she is glad she had the experience.

“It really gave me another perspective, from the other side,” she said.

Last week Ballinger said some of the jurors met up for dinner. They are planning a reunion in September.

During trial, jurors cannot discuss the case until deliberations, so they have no choice but to learn about each other, Ballinger said.

“I made friends with people I might never have met otherwise,” she said.

The positive outcome for ClarkDietrich has a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem of Butler County’s steel industry. ClarkDietrich buys steel materials from fellow West Chester Twp.-based steel manufacturing heavyweight and neighbor AK Steel, and companies such as Hamilton steel processor JN Linrose license to make Clark’s products too, according to ClarkDietrich.

If ClarkDietrich would have lost, “the company would have survived, but the product line, that technology, would have been done,” said Bill Courtney, president and chief executive officer.

It’s still possible that the decision reached in November could be appealed and until the dust settles, the president of JN Linrose declined to comment on the case’s local impact.

ClarkDietrich is a joint venture of Columbus-based Worthington Industries and New York-based MISA that makes steel studs used to frame commercial buildings ranging from skyscrapers to warehouses and more.

Competitors claimed one of ClarkDietrich’s products was shoddy and didn’t meet building code in advertisements distributed around the building industry nationwide. By filing the lawsuit in 2013, the Butler County company sought to clear its name, Courtney said.

“Maybe the readers will see jury duty isn’t something you should shun,” Courtney said. “That’s at least what (the jurors) taught me.”

The misleading claims could have damaged the company’s reputation among architects and contractors that decide what building materials to use in construction projects and thus hurt sales, Courtney said.

“This was a really good product and we weren’t the type of company that would knowingly ship product that didn’t meet building code,” Courtney said. “We had our technology, our jobs and our reputation at stake.”

Defendant Certified Steel Stud Association could not be reached by deadline last week via emails or voicemails for comment.

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