Chapter 21: The Second Case

The second case came from Merriweather. Not directly — through a member of the Society who had a connection to a mechanical clockwork factory in Birmingham, where an unusual series of malfunctions had produced three workplace injuries in six months and the factory's owner was claiming the malfunctions were the result of operator error rather than design flaws. Crane was in the middle of a different case — an insurance fraud matter that was technically more lucrative and considerably less interesting. He finished the insurance case in three days because it was straightforward and took the Birmingham matter because it was not. The factory malfunctions were not the result of operator error. This took him four days to establish and another three to document in the form that the factory workers' legal representation needed for their compensation claim. The design flaw was in the safety mechanism of a specific gear assembly — a modification that had been made eighteen months earlier by the factory's engineer to reduce production time, at the cost of a margin of safety that was now manifesting as injury risk under high-volume operation conditions. The engineer, when confronted with Crane's documentation, said: 'I told the owner. He said the margin was sufficient. I have the letter.' The letter existed. The case became a different kind of case. Crane wrote to Inspector Osei: *I have a matter that involves mechanical design documentation and a factory owner who knew about a safety risk and continued operations. I believe this is your area.* Osei's reply: *Send me the file.* He sent her the file. Some cases ended. Others opened the next one.