Paul D. Burnum to Herlihy and Herlihy on Withholding Dust Counts in the Ortega Case (1968)

A one-page letter of October 26, 1968, from Paul D. Burnum, industrial relations manager at J-M's Long Beach, California, plant, to Stan Henry of the Long Beach law firm Herlihy and Herlihy, about the workmen's compensation case of George V. Ortega against Johns-Manville Products Corporation. "In this case, relative to dust studies, we do not choose to present dust counts," Burnum writes. "Obviously we do not want any information as a matter of public record." He points to an earlier motion to quash a subpoena for records, offers the employment, medical and personnel files instead, and invites the lawyer to inspect Ortega's work area before the hearing set for December 16 and 17, 1968.

What it shows

Burnum also says he could not testify about working conditions because he had not worked at the plant while Ortega did. Two weeks later he wrote to C. L. Sheckler at headquarters that he was sending the plant's industrial hygiene records away so they would not be available at Long Beach when the case came back on the calendar (Burnum's handwritten note to Sheckler, November 1968). Together the two letters show a plant manager working with the company's lawyers to keep its dust measurements out of a compensation hearing.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In a letter to Stan Henry of Herlihy and Herlihy, Paul D. Burnam, 10/26/68 re George V. Ortega vs. Johns-Manville Products Corporation, (Margaret F. Ortega), Paul D. Burnum states: "In this case, relative to dust studies, we do not choose to present dust counts. Obviously we do not want any information as a matter of public record."

Editor's note: J-M's description spells the writer's name both Burnam and Burnum. The typed signature reads Paul D. Burnum, Industrial Relations Manager.