Maryland Casualty Company to Johns-Manville on Home Insulation Silicosis Claims (1933)

A one-page letter of March 22, 1933, to Johns-Manville Corporation in New York from the chief surgeon of the Maryland Casualty Company, an insurer in Baltimore (the letterhead names A. D. Lazenby as chief surgeon). The insurer had in litigation "two claims of alleged silicosis against a firm engaged in the insulating of homes, using your insulating material," and asked whether its lawyer, Mr. Rothfuss, could call on a J-M official for information about the products to use in the defense.

What it shows

By early 1933 dust-disease claims had reached the men who installed J-M's home insulation, not only J-M's own factory workers. Two months later Vandiver Brown reported that two suits by former employees of Home Insulation Company of New Jersey, apparently the same cases, had been decided for the defendant, and recommended masks, ventilation and posted dust warnings on insulation jobs.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Two unsuccessful civil cases against J-M Home Insulation unit for dust disease of insulators of 3/22/33. This company reportedly used only J-M rock wool. J-M analysis concluded that there was no free silica in the product. Maryland Casualty Company defended suits in which medical evidence of silicosis and asbestosis was offered.