Johns-Manville and Saranac Laboratory Correspondence on the Death of Dominic Bertogliat (1948)

Letters of 1947 and 1948 about Dominic Bertogliat, a superintendent at Johns-Manville's Waukegan, Illinois, plant for more than twenty-one years, who died on December 23, 1947, after leaving the company. In the pages the index assigns, J. P. Woodard of J-M sent Dr. Arthur J. Vorwald of the Saranac Laboratory a copy of the widow's letter reporting that the autopsy showed death "of an occupational nature, specifically asbestos infiltration," and wrote that J-M was "frankly, shocked and amazed." Later letters between Vorwald and H. M. Jackson, J-M's safety engineer, follow Vorwald's search for the autopsy tissue and his finding of "moderately advanced asbestosis."

What it shows

Woodard's letter of January 14, 1948, says he and Jackson had discussed the case with Dr. A. J. Lanza, who agreed it should go to Vorwald, and copies went to Vandiver Brown. In March 1948 Vorwald read the X-rays as tuberculosis rather than asbestosis. After he obtained the tissue slides, he reported in July 1948 that the case was "one of moderately advanced asbestosis." Jackson then asked that Vorwald's report to the autopsy pathologist "be delayed for a time" until "appropriate steps" were taken at Waukegan, and on August 13 wrote that steps had been taken toward settlement. Because Bertogliat's exposure was "relatively slight," Jackson asked whether J-M should "anticipate others with similar exposures to be similarly affected." Vorwald answered on August 19, 1948, that he could "see no other alternative than to anticipate others with similar exposures to be similarly affected."

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Correspondence primarily between J-M and Saranac Lake re sudden death on December 23, 1947 of Dominic Bertogliat, a J-M employee who had worked at the Waukegan plant for 20 yrs. Widow claims that the cause of death was of an occupational nature, "specifically asbestos infiltration." This case was of particular concern to J-M because Bertogliat had "relatively slight" exposure to asbestos. One letter from J.P. Woodard to Dr. A.J. Vorwald mentions discussing Bertogliat's case with Dr. A.J. Lanza. (1947-1948)

About this copy

These are documents 74, 89, 78, 86, 76, 75, 79, 85, 81, 77, 82, 80, 87, 83, 90, 84 and 88 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-000727 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000773. Pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000731 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000752 and CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000755 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000756, which fall inside that range, belong to other documents and are not included here. Dr. Vorwald's pathology report on the autopsy slides (CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000761 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000762) is left out: the Library does not publish autopsy reports on named people.