Bergit A. Swartout v. Mundet Cork Corp. and Others, California Asbestosis Death Claim (1956–1958)

Papers from a California workers' compensation claim, Case No. 55 SF 169-171, brought for John E. Swartout, an asbestos worker in San Francisco, and continued by his widow, Bergit A. Swartout. A June 22, 1956, order joined about two dozen insulation companies and insurers as defendants, among them Armstrong Cork Co. and Johns-Manville Sales Corporation. The referee's Findings and Award of March 4, 1958, found that Swartout, "employed as an asbestos worker by various employers," had asbestosis from his work, was totally disabled from January 1955 and died on June 6, 1956, from that injury. A Decision after Reconsideration in June 1958 confirmed the award of disability pay, a $7,000 death benefit and burial expenses against Western Asbestos Company's insurer, the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

What it shows

Under California law the widow could choose one employer to pursue, and she proceeded against Western Asbestos Company. The case shows that by the mid-1950s California insulation workers' asbestosis claims named the whole chain of contractors and suppliers, J-M's sales company among them, and that the state commission found the death was caused by asbestosis.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M served in Swartout asbestosis workers compensation proceeding. Contract unit employee of J-M and Armstrong Cork. (Shipyard exposures)

Editor's note: J-M's description calls Swartout a contract unit employee of J-M and Armstrong Cork with shipyard exposures. The papers describe him only as an asbestos worker "employed ... by various employers" and say nothing of shipyards; J-M and Armstrong Cork are among about two dozen companies joined as defendants.