Johns-Manville Form 10-K for 1975: Legal Proceedings (1976)

The cover and the asbestos paragraphs of Johns-Manville's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1975. As of March 1, 1976, J-M was a defendant in 124 asbestos suits; it had settled 20 cases and "unsuccessfully tried two." The filing reports a purported class action filed May 6, 1975, in federal court in New Jersey by 309 former employees of Raybestos-Manhattan, each seeking $2,000,000. The company said the injuries came from "heavy concentrations of asbestos dust prevelant more than ten years ago," that insurance would cover what it might pay, and that recoveries would not materially affect its earnings or financial position.

What it shows

The filing adds the first settlements, the first trial losses and the first class action. It also warns that because the cases "involve similar issues, the results in these settled and tried cases may adversely affect the results in the current and future cases." The Raybestos-Manhattan workers claimed that J-M and three other suppliers sold their employer asbestos fiber without warning of its hazards.

A handwritten note in the margin of this copy lists what was new: the first settlement, the first class action, the first lost case, and the claim that post-1964 safety measures would reduce future injuries.