Dennis H. Markusson to R. B. Von Wald on Clifford Sheckler's False Testimony About Rutgers (1982)

An eight-page confidential Johns-Manville memo of June 3, 1982, from Dennis H. Markusson, J-M's associate general counsel, to R. B. Von Wald, copied to G. E. Parker, about Clifford L. Sheckler, J-M's longtime industrial hygiene and safety man and a frequent company witness. J-M had just confirmed that Sheckler had never been a student at Rutgers University, though he had testified as early as the Borel case that he was an engineering graduate and, after correcting that in 1978, had testified many times that he attended Rutgers for three years. His only tie was "some Extension courses" given at the Middlesex County Vocational School.

What it shows

Markusson recounts how it came out: during a trial in Biloxi, Mississippi, plaintiffs' lawyer Ron Motley was heard "bragging about his proof that Sheckler had never set foot on the Rutgers campus." Sheckler refused to sign a release for his records, and J-M then learned the truth through "contacts of David Gross's office with a trustee of Rutgers." Markusson weighs the risk to verdicts J-M had won, possible perjury, and the ethical duties of the lawyers defending Sheckler personally in New Jersey and Louisiana. He decides to "delist" Sheckler as a witness in all pending and future J-M cases, and he records that he vetoed a suggestion to keep Sheckler listed and "read his transcript into evidence with impunity" in cases where no one had asked about his education. Sheckler had for decades been J-M's voice on plant dust and safety (see notes of a 1969 discussion with Cliff Sheckler and his 1972 testimony at the Labor Department asbestos hearing); after this memo the company stopped using him as a witness.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

A memorandum to R.B. Von Wald from D.H. Markusson, 6/3/82, re Clifford L. Sheckler, describes Manville's discovery that Cliff Sheckler did not attend Rutgers University for three years as he previously testified, but that his involvement with Rutgers, if any, was limited to some extension courses. Markusson states that this is particularly troublesome since, in 1978, Sheckler testified that he was a graduate of Rutgers. The memorandum discusses the event surrounding the discovery and confirmation of this information, the consequences to Manville and to Sheckler, and the action that has been taken in view of these events.