Yakobich v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Removal Papers (1934)

A 48-page set of court papers in Tony Yakobich's suit against Johns-Manville Corporation, filed in the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois, and removed to the federal court in Chicago in April 1934. Yakobich, a laborer at J-M's Waukegan plant, said he had breathed "large quantities of dust from magnesium, fibre, and asbestos" while mixing materials, cutting asbestos paper and making pipe covering, and asked for $50,000. The set includes the complaint and amended complaint, J-M's answer and motions to dismiss, and the petition, bond and order for removal. Royal Indemnity Company was surety on the $500 removal bond, which Vandiver Brown signed for J-M as assistant secretary.

What it shows

The complaint charged that J-M knew the dust "was apt to and did produce" the plaintiff's illness, that it gave no masks, suction fans or warning, and that he was "never, at any time, informed" of the danger. J-M denied all of it. It argued that Illinois law gave a worker no common-law right to sue his employer for an occupational disease, and that the claim was barred by the Workmen's Compensation Act and by time limits. J-M moved the case to federal court by removal. The papers are part of a group of 1934 suits by Waukegan workers gathered on the page Waukegan Workers' Suits Against Johns-Manville in Illinois (1934).

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

Various pleadings filed in Tony Yakobich v. J-M Corp. Complaint was filed in February 1934 in the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois. Case was removed to the U.S.D.C., Illinois. Yakobich was a laborer at J-M's Waukegan plant for an unknown period of time. Royal Indemnity was the surety on the removal bond.

Related documents

• Waukegan Workers' Suits Against Johns-Manville in Illinois (1934)

About this copy

This is document 881 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-005045 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-005092.