George S. Hobart to Vandiver Brown on the Metropolitan Life Galley Proof (1934)

A three-page letter of December 15, 1934, from George S. Hobart of Hobart & Minard, Johns-Manville's New Jersey counsel in Newark, to Vandiver Brown, J-M's attorney. Hobart had compared the galley proof of Metropolitan Life's preliminary study, "Effects of the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust on the Lungs of Asbestos Workers," with the paper of the same title prepared about three years earlier, and listed his suggested changes. He objected to a sentence suggesting that variables like those in silicosis would influence asbestosis, because "one of our principal defenses in actions against the company on the common law theory of negligence has been that the scientific and medical knowledge has been insufficient until a very recent period to place upon the owners of plants or factories the burden or duty of taking special precautions against the possible onset of the disease to their employees."

What it shows

Hobart recalled that before the New Jersey commission drafting a law to make silicosis compensable, J-M had "consistently urged" that asbestosis was substantially different from silicosis and should not yet be listed as a compensable disease. Since the commission would likely bring a bill to the legislature in January 1935, he wrote, "it would be very helpful to have an official report to show that there is a substantial difference between asbestosis and silicosis." He agreed with Brown that the report should say the disease appeared "to be of a type milder than silicosis," asked that the word "death" be put back after "6 of 36," and objected to wording suggesting that asbestos might cause pneumoconiosis more readily than granite dust. The letter shows J-M's lawyers weighing the wording of a medical report against the company's defense in negligence suits and its position on compensation law.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Hobart & Minard wrote to Vandiver Brown after reading Dr. Lanza's report and Vandiver's comments about it, they provided commentary of their own and advised Brown they agreed with his remarks to Lanza.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to M. F. Judd Sending the Galley Proof of the Metropolitan Life Study (1934)
• Vandiver Brown to Dr. A. J. Lanza with Comments on the Galley Proof (1934)