Benjamin F. Stanton to H. M. Jackson on Willie F. Howard's Compensation Claim (1955)

A one-page memo of January 1955 from Benjamin F. Stanton at J-M's Manville, New Jersey, plant to H. M. Jackson about Willie F. Howard, an employee who had filed a workers' compensation claim. Under the company's standard practices Stanton sends Howard's J-M work and exposure history, the plant medical department's summary and records, and his chest X-rays, noting that there was no record of exposure before his J-M employment. Stanton writes that he thought the possibility was "slight" that Howard could have occupational disease "from such a short exposure," and that, on advice of counsel, J-M was "denying responsibility for any industrial disease contracted while in the employ of Johns-Manville."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Willie F. Howard, Manville plantworker, files workers' compensation claim. Had only two years of known exposures to silica and asbestos.