Detroit District Memo to R. A. Stapleton on the Bradshaw Summons, with "the Wave Is Breaking" Note (1967)

A one-page confidential memo from J-M's Detroit district, dated January 1967, to R. A. Stapleton at headquarters, forwarding a copy of a summons served on Johns-Manville in Detroit and accepted on January 19, 1967, as directed by Richard R. Standel Jr. of J-M's legal department in New York. The summons was in a workers' compensation claim by an insulator named Bradshaw. A handwritten note across the top reads "It looks as though the wave is breaking. Is there anything we can do?"; J-M's own description attributes the initials to M. W. Burleson.

What it shows

By early 1967 asbestos claims by insulation workers were arriving one after another (see the Frederick, Puetz and Lumbattis claims), and the note shows a J-M manager reading the Bradshaw summons as part of a wave. J-M's lawyers went on to review the company's own files for the Bradshaw case (Standel to Vandeveer, 1967).

About this copy

The handwritten initials on the note are hard to read. The attribution to M. W. Burleson comes from J-M's own description and cannot be confirmed from the page.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Bradshaw (insulator) claim filed against J-M; marginalia notes: "It looks as though the wave is breaking. Is there anything we can do? MB". Initials appear to be those of M.W. Burleson, who then had contract unit responsibilities.