C. G. Potthoff on a Search of J-M's Old Advertising at the Hibbert-Laman Warehouse (1982)

A three-page Johns-Manville internal memo of August 12, 1982, from C. G. Potthoff of J-M's legal staff, reporting on a July 15, 1982, search with Anita Christen of the Hibbert-Laman warehouse, which held boxes of J-M's "old advertisements, and promotional materials." They found 64 boxes, 55 of them file boxes that could hold 1,500 to 2,000 pages each, coded by product line (pipe, roofing, brake lining, packings, industrial products and others), and spot-checked them; the earliest papers they saw were from the 1940s. Potthoff lists items reviewed, from a 1923 booklet on J-M's service to railroads and a 1946 sales manual of the General Insulation Department to manuals titled "Marine Materials," "Hi Temp Insulations" and "Aerospace Insulation."

What it shows

The memo shows where J-M's old sales literature sat in 1982 and that its legal department was searching it during the litigation. Potthoff thought the material deserved a thorough review, and notes that Keene Corporation's lawyers had been given a chance to look at it in answer to a request for production.