James R. Addington of American Rock Wool to Vandiver Brown on Help in a Sears, Roebuck Suit (1951)

A one-page letter of March 1, 1951, from James R. Addington, president of American Rock Wool Corp. of Chicago, to Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville, thanking him for "the help you gave us in the recent suit against Sears, Roebuck in New Hampshire." Addington writes that "It is always a pleasure to know that you could call on other members of the Industry even though they are competitors when technical help is needed," and offers the same help in return. Brown marked it "Noted." A second, nearly illegible letter of March 5, 1951, copied to L. M. Cassidy, is in the file.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Correspondence from James Addington, President of American Rock Wool Corp. and C. Keefe Hurley, of Hale and Dorr to Paul Voight and Vandiver Brown thanking J-M for assistance in Sears Roebuck & Co. trial involving rock wool products. Vandiver Brown responds in letter of 3/5/51: "It seems eminently proper that competitors should cooperate in protecting industry products from false accusations."

Editor's note: J-M's description mentions a letter from C. Keefe Hurley of Hale and Dorr to Paul Voight; it is not in this file. Brown's reply of March 5, 1951, is in the file but almost entirely black, so the quotation attributed to him could not be checked.