M. F. Judd to Vandiver Brown on Approving the Lanza Report (1935)

A one-page letter of January 2, 1935, from M. F. Judd, secretary of Raybestos-Manhattan, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, answering Brown's letter of December 24 about the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's report on asbestos dust. "Both Mr. Simpson and myself feel quite safe in leaving the approval of the report in your hands," Judd writes. He praises the "excellent suggestions" in a December 15 letter from Mr. Hobart, hopes Dr. Lanza "will give a lot of consideration to the comments," and asks for a copy of the article when it is printed.

What it shows

The letter shows the two largest asbestos companies treating Metropolitan Life's study as a report that needed their approval before publication, and Raybestos-Manhattan's president, Sumner Simpson, and secretary leaving that approval to J-M's lawyer. Brown's December 24 letter is at Brown to Judd on proposed changes, and the comments he sent Metropolitan Life are at J-M's comments on the Lanza report. The report appeared two days later, on January 4, 1935 (the published Lanza report).

About this copy

The letter is signed "Secretary," with the initials "MFJ-G." The writer is taken to be M. F. Judd from those initials and his title.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Judd of RM states that he and his company trust JM's choices regarding what changes should be made to the Metropolitan Life report about dust surveys done at their plants.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to Dr. A. J. Lanza with Comments on the Galley Proof (1934)
• George S. Hobart to Vandiver Brown on the Metropolitan Life Galley Proof (1934)