Haight, Dickson, Brown & Bonesteel Summary of Armstrong World Industries' Interrogatory Answers in Meers v. Johns-Manville (1982)

A three-page memo of August 5, 1982, from Jim Damon of Haight, Dickson, Brown & Bonesteel, a Los Angeles law firm defending Johns-Manville in Meers v. Johns-Manville Corporation, summarizing co-defendant Armstrong World Industries' answers of February 12, 1981, to the plaintiff's first interrogatories and requests for admission. Armstrong said it made LT Cork Covering with an asbestos paper laminate from 1956 to 1959 and Armaspray (about 8% asbestos) from 1966 to 1968, and resold other makers' insulation from the mid-1940s through 1957, including Unarco's Armabestos, Owens-Illinois's Kaylo and Keasbey & Mattison's products. It said it first became aware of a possible link between asbestos and disease in late 1968, from an article called "The Magic Mineral" in The New Yorker.

What it shows

The summary records Armstrong's positions in 1981: it objected to questions about warnings and about how it kept up with medical literature since 1930, denied knowing of any possible injury to workers from asbestos before 1964, and said it was "unaware of any warnings regarding asbestos hazards which related to its own products." It also argued that the federal government's Qualified Products List for military specifications "may have been an indication" that the products were not health hazards. Other Library pages show that Armstrong Cork handled an asbestosis compensation claim in the 1950s: see Armstrong Cork, Travelers and Alexander & Alexander on E. O. McCarrell's Asbestosis Claim (1956–1957).