Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on the 1938 Saranac Report and the Gardner Agreement (1939)

A two-page letter of May 3, 1939, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. Brown points Simpson to the references to asbestosis in the Saranac Laboratory's 1938 report and in two of Leroy Gardner's reprinted papers, drawn apparently from the experiments Gardner was conducting "with funds provided by, the group of members of the Asbestos Textile Industry," and asks whether Gardner's use of the material is proper. He quotes his November 20, 1936 proposal: "the results obtained will be considered the property of those who are advancing the required funds, who will determine whether, to what extent and in what manner they shall be made public."

What it shows

Brown also quotes Gardner's acceptance of November 23, 1936: "The Saranac Laboratory agrees that the results of these studies shall become the property of the contributors and that the manuscripts of any reports shall be submitted for approval of the contributors before publication." The letter sets out, in the words of J-M's own attorney, that the asbestos companies controlled whether and how the research they paid for would be published (the 1936 agreement). Simpson replied the next day that Gardner should not use the material "without our consent" (Simpson's reply).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In a letter from V. Brown to Sumner Simpson, 5/3/39, Brown states what that agreement was. "It is our further understanding that the results obtained will be considered the property of those who are advancing the required funds, who will determine whether, to what extent and in what manner they shall be made public." See letter from Gardner dated 11/23/36 agreeing to prepublication screening.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Use of Asbestosis Material (1939)