Opinion ID: 1473494
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Claytor

Text: Grover Claytor's career as a welder and pipefitter spanned almost fifty years, from 1938 to 1986. He guess[ed] that he began working with asbestos in 1938, when he worked on automobiles at Acme Welding Company and used wet asbestos on hot brake and gas lines. Soon thereafter, about '42 ... and the early part of '43, he worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital welding pipe in the steam tunnels. Claytor was not continuously on the jobsite at Walter Reed; rather, there would be short stints, a week at most, when he went to the hospital to repair pipes. Some time later, when Claytor was in the Navy, he used block to insulate boilers, but he could not recall if it was Kaylo block. [2] After his discharge from the Navy, Claytor returned to Acme Welding, where he remained until 1964. During his years with Acme, he said, he worked on several jobsites, including Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Fort Holabird, Maryland, and a whole lot of different apartment houses in Washington.... I'll be darned if I know all the places where I worked. Referring to Fort Belvoir, Claytor said, I know I worked there in '51, and I did some work there in '55. And then off and on at different times up until 1973, just different times. As to the nature of the work he performed at Fort Belvoir, Claytor testified that, among other things, he helped to tear out old pipes and boilers. He said that he, along with others, sometimes tore out old asbestos from around the pipes, but he did not know the brand name or the manufacturer of the asbestos covering (although he did recall the company  Rick-Weld Corporation  that made the pipe itself; it had Rick-Weld marked on it). Claytor otherwise testified only in general terms about his presence near asbestos products. He said that at times he would be inside a building when asbestos was being used, although, because he was a welder, he mainly worked outside the buildings on pipes that were connected to manholes. Claytor stated that at various times during the '50's, '60's, and '70's he worked at different facilities of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, but he never did a whole lot of work for them, usually no more than a week at a time. Sometime in the '60's, he said, at two or three different times, he worked at Saint Elizabeths Hospital. He believed the old pipes there had asbestos on them, and perhaps the new pipes as well, but he was not there when the new ones were installed. Other than the boiler room, he could not recall where he worked at Saint Elizabeths. Finally, Claytor mentioned that he had done some work at Catholic University, but he did not say when or for how long. Concerning his possible exposure to asbestos at Catholic University, Claytor said only that he worked in all the buildings, and all of those buildings had asbestos in them. He did not identify the manufacturers or suppliers of any asbestos products that might have been at the university.