Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978)

A 37-page set of interrogatories served by the plaintiff's lawyers in Morton J. Austin v. Johns-Manville Corporation and others (U.S. District Court for New Jersey, Civil Action 76-1482, and Superior Court of New Jersey, Camden County), with the answers of defendant North American Asbestos Co., Inc. The answers were given by C. G. Morgan, its former president, after the company was dissolved on May 19, 1978. Many questions asked what the company knew about asbestos hazards and how it warned workers and customers. Asked whether prolonged exposure to its asbestos could cause asbestosis, cancer or other diseases, the company answered "No," saying hygiene standards had been set to "virtually eliminate" the risk. It named Owens-Corning Fiberglas's plant at Berlin, New Jersey, and Johns-Manville at Manville, New Jersey, as its New Jersey buyers.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Interrogatories and Answers of Defendant North American Asbestos Company, Inc., filed in U.S.D.C., District of New Jersey, in Morton J. Austin v. Johns-Manville Corporation, et al., undated. Many of the questions deal with the Company's knowledge regarding the hazards of asbestos exposure and the various means used by the Company to protect and warn its employees and customers.

About this copy

This is document 368 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-001742 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001778.