W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin, Review of the Health Picture at the Pittsburg Plant (1978)

A confidential memo of January 16, 1978, from W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin, later used as a deposition exhibit. It recounts a November 1977 meeting called by George O'Dair on J-M's workers' compensation liability, at which five plants were asked to review medical files and estimate the claims to expect in the next 10 years. At Pittsburg, the contract doctor, Donald Smith, said that if he found disease he intended to comply "with his legal, moral, and ethical responsibilities to inform the patient."

What it shows

Emmett Randolph warned Reitze of "the possible effect it might have upon our existing litigation at Pittsburg," and Dick Von Wald advised that, "since the possible liability was so great," top corporate management should know before a decision was made. Reitze reports that J-M's corporate legal staff and top management agreed "that we have no options but to comply with our legal, moral, and ethical obligation to inform the employee if he was not previously informed." This settles the question raised in Reitze's December 1977 memo.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from Reitze to Kotin dated 1/16/78, entitled "Review of Health Picture at Pittsburg Plant." Reitze reports on follow-up to a meeting to discuss future workers' compensation liability. It apparently had been decided that certain plants were to review medical files and advise of potential claims to be expected in the next 10-year period.

Reitze reported that the Pittsburg plant had difficulty providing information "largely because of the method of record keeping that was used at the Pittsburg location." The local Employee Relations manager decided to forward plant x-rays and medical records for review by the current local contract doctor, Donald Smith. "Apparently from the records, Dr. Smith could not determine whether any of the individuals who had abnormal findings had ever been notified, and Dr. Smith informed the plant that it should be clearly understood that if he reviewed a patient's records and found disease, he had full intention of complying with his legal, moral, and ethical responsibilities to inform the patient of these findings. It was at this point that Emmett Randolph notified me of the possible legal implications regarding this notification and the possible effect it might have upon our existing litigation at Pittsburg. It was then that I discussed this with Dick Von Wald, who advised that since the possible liability was so great, our top Corporate management should be made aware of this before the final decision was made. It is obvious that our Corporate legal staff, as well as top Corporate management agreed with me that we have no options but to comply with our legal, moral and ethical obligation to inform the employee if he was not previously informed of the matter."

Related documents

• W. B. Reitze to R. B. Von Wald on Pittsburg Workers' Compensation Liability (1977)