Sumner Simpson to W. J. McConnell of Metropolitan Life on the Charleston Asbestosis Suits (1935)

A two-page letter of October 19, 1935, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to Dr. W. J. McConnell, assistant medical director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's industrial health section, on "Asbestos Dust at North Charleston Plant." Raybestos-Manhattan faced a number of asbestosis suits at its North Charleston, South Carolina, plant, and Metropolitan Life's chemist J. William Fehnel had testified at the last trial. After hearing that Metropolitan's medical department had been told by its superiors not to help further, the company had Fehnel subpoenaed, and Simpson asks that his help "be given us very cheerfully."

What it shows

Simpson recounts the companies' history with the insurer: Metropolitan Life had wanted health data on asbestos dust, Raybestos-Manhattan "induced Johns-Manville to cooperate," and Metropolitan's dust survey followed, with Otto Binder later hired to work "under your control, but at the expense of Johns-Manville and ourselves." Its policies with Metropolitan had not covered "damage suits for Asbestosis." Simpson argues that helping defend "these unfair suits" would also bear on "the Dust racket," and points out that Metropolitan was gaining "a tremendous amount of information" on asbestos dust that no one else in the country had. The letter shows how closely the insurer's industrial health staff were tied to the companies they studied. The study itself is at the published Lanza report; Binder's joint salary is noted in J-M's Officers Board minutes of June 27.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter from Sumner Simpson to W.J. McConnell (Metropolitan Life), 10/19/35. Simpson sought Metropolitan's help in Charleston, South Carolina litigation involving Raybestos Manhattan. He wanted Fehnel to testify and to use data compiled by Metropolitan Life. According to this letter, Metropolitan then insured R-M for worker's compensation but the policy specifically excluded asbestosis. Allegedly, it was this exclusion that triggered the Lanza study as well as the hiring of O.L. Binder to perform dust counts according to Simpson. Simpson hints that Metropolitan's cooperation in the litigation could lead to R-M's permission to complete a major study with the exclusive use of the information from the study guaranteed to Metropolitan.

Editor's note: J-M's description says Metropolitan's policy "specifically excluded asbestosis" and that this exclusion led to the Lanza study. The letter says only that the policies did not cover damage suits for asbestosis, and that the survey began because Metropolitan wanted health data. It also does not hint at a future study reserved for Metropolitan; Simpson writes that the companies had meant to bring other asbestos firms into the survey, which would have left Metropolitan the only holder of such data.

Related documents

• Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan Letters on Hiring Dust Counter Otto Binder (1936)