Bowers & Rinehart and Vandiver Brown on Joseph Kopicki's Silicosis Claim (1941)

On January 3, 1941, the Somerville, New Jersey, law firm of Bowers & Rinehart wrote to Johns-Manville at Manville that it represented Joseph Kopicki, and had "definite proof" that he was suffering from silicosis contracted in J-M's employ, adding that "he will become progressively worse as time goes on." The firm offered to confer if J-M wished to settle without litigation. On January 6 Vandiver Brown, J-M's general attorney, replied that he had asked the Manville plant for "complete information concerning Mr. Kopicki as revealed by our records" and would write again within two or three days.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

(2 letters 1/3/1941 and 1/6/1941) Joseph Kopicki, an employee at the Manville plant for 8 years, was committed to the Glen Gardner Sanitorium in 1940 with a diagnosis of TB. While in the hospital, he made contact with attorneys and threatened suit. Kopicki claimed he had silicosis. His case was pending for about 6 months when (1941) his attorneys advised him to drop the case and accept the work outdoors J-M offered him. (Drs. Lanza and McConnell had confirmed his TB diagnosis.) This he did, and on his request, J-M made application to Metropolitan for Health and Accident Insurance. Metropolitan informed J-M that they would not insure Kopicki, giving no reasons, but presumably because of his lung weakness. J-M applied to Metropolitan for reconsideration.

Editor's note: Only the two letters of January 1941 are in this file. The rest of J-M's account, including the tuberculosis diagnosis confirmed by Lanza and McConnell, the dropped claim, the outdoor job and Metropolitan's refusal to insure Kopicki, is not in this file.