John Perone v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Sanatorium Interview (1929)

Court papers from John Perone v. Johns-Manville Corporation, begun by a summons of July 1, 1929, in the New Jersey Supreme Court for Somerset County and removed to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey (Law No. 1956), with National Archives certifications (72 pages). The complaint, by attorney Samuel Greenstone, gave his residence as the Bonnie Burn Sanitarium in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and said he had worked at J-M's Manville plant until July 1927 "and for several years prior thereto" and was never warned of the asbestos dust. J-M moved to quash the summons as filed without his authority, supported by a question-and-answer statement taken from him at the sanatorium on December 16, 1929, by Emil Ramer, with plant manager Archibald Hughes and a J-M stenographer present. The case was discontinued as settled on June 13, 1934.

What it shows

In the interview, Perone, then 23, said that Greenstone had been brought to him at the sanatorium by a visiting doctor, and that Greenstone told him he would sue J-M "for my sickness" and split anything recovered "on a fifty-fifty basis." Asked what he had told the lawyer, he answered: "Go to it - If you can get it all right." J-M used such statements to try to end the Manville suits brought by Greenstone in 1929 (see Motley #738, #740); this one, like the Zackwiejz cases, went on and was settled. Perone's parents, Benjamin and Concetta, appear in the later suits Motley #745 and #745A.

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 John Perone v. J-M Corp. Complaint was filed on 7/8/29 in the Supreme Court of Somerset County, New Jersey. Case was removed to the U.S.D.C., New Jersey. Perone was a textile worker at J-M's Manville plant for an unknown period of time. New York Indemnity was the surety on the removal bond.

Related documents

• Helen Zackwiejz v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Motion to Quash (1929)
• Bartus v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Worker's Statement Withdrawing the Suit (1929)
• Concetta Perone v. Johns-Manville, Wrongful Death Suit for John Perone (1932)
• Perone and Barbati v. Johns-Manville, Suit for the Death of Benjamin Perone (1930-1934)

About this copy

This is document 741 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-003418 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-003489.