Raybestos-Manhattan Letters to Dr. A. J. Lanza and William J. Fehnel on E. T. Hill's Asbestosis Claim (1942)

Two unsigned letters of December 29, 1942, from the Sumner Simpson Papers, apparently written for Raybestos-Manhattan. The first, to Dr. A. J. Lanza, assistant medical director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, warned of "another suit based on alleged Asbestosis" by E. T. Hill, a former employee then working at the Navy Yard at Charleston, and called the local doctor who had told Hill he had asbestosis "a crank on the subject of Asbestosis." The writer said Hill's X-rays were being sent for another reading and closed "with the hopes that you may be able to render us that assistance which has been so invaluable to us in the past." The second, to William J. Fehnel of Metropolitan Life, asked him to forward the letter because Lanza was "now in the service of his Country," and thanked Fehnel for the personal sacrifices he had made in past cases "to be present to testify and assist us."

What it shows

The letters show Raybestos-Manhattan, in 1942, turning to Metropolitan Life's industrial hygiene staff for help against a former worker's asbestosis claim, and thanking them for testifying in earlier cases. The writer doubted that a man "gaining in weight and working at the kind of job he has at the Navy Yard, down in the holds of ships," could have asbestosis. Earlier dealings between Raybestos-Manhattan and Metropolitan Life over asbestosis suits at Charleston appear in Sumner Simpson's 1935 letter to W. J. McConnell.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Unsigned letter to A.J. Lanza, Metropolitan, dated 12/29/42, re possible asbestosis lawsuit on behalf of E.T. Hill, formerly with Raybestos-Manhattan and presently working in the Navy yard at Charleston. The writer explains, after reporting diagnoses and consultations, "I am writing you with the hopes that you may be able to render us that assistance which has been so invaluable to us in the past." Unsigned letter to William J. McHeel, Esq. at Metropolitan, 12/29/42, enclosing the previously described letter and requesting that it be forwarded since Lanza is "now in the service of his country." The writer goes on to praise McHeel's services helping out in asbestosis cases in the past. Both of these letters are from the Sumner Simpson correspondence and appear to have been authored by Raybestos-Manhattan.

Editor's note: J-M's description names the second recipient "William J. McHeel." The letter is addressed to William J. Fehnel of the Hygiene Division, Metropolitan Life.