Illinois Manufacturers' Association Draft Occupational Diseases Act, Sent to Vandiver Brown (1935)

A 23-page confidential draft of a "Workmen's Occupational Diseases Act" for Illinois, prepared by the Occupational Diseases Committee of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association and dated January 17, 1935, with a four-page memorandum explaining it. With it is a letter of January 28, 1935, from the committee's chairman, Oliver E. Mount, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, welcoming J-M's "cooperation" in securing "an adequate Occupational Diseases Act," naming Lloyd D. Heth, whose law firm represented J-M in its Illinois dust suits, to the committee, and asking that the documents be kept confidential. The draft would cover only a fixed list of diseases, including asbestosis and silicosis, and make compensation the employer's only liability, replacing lawsuits.

What it shows

For asbestosis and silicosis the draft required at least three years of exposure, two of them in Illinois, and allowed claims only if disability or death came within three years of the last exposure (one year for other diseases). A claim had to be made within six months of disablement. It defined asbestosis as lung scarring from asbestos dust "sufficient to cause, and causing, disability," and it did not apply to disease from exposure before the law took effect unless the employer chose. The memorandum says the bill was drafted with an eye to "insurability" and "bearable burden" as well as fairness. Brown's comments on the draft are at his February 14 memorandum; the bill failed in the legislature that summer (Brown to Voorhees, July 3).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

The Chairman of the Occupational Diseases Committee sends a letter to Vandiver Brown at JM asking for the company's input on workmen's compensation and occupational diseases litigation being drawn up in Illinois.

The Illinois Manufacturers' Association's Occupational Disease Committee, of which Vandiver Brown was a member, met and drafted proposed legislation regarding a workers' compensation plan for occupational disease in Illinois. In a letter dated 1/17/35, O.E. Mount, Committee Chairman, solicits comments by Brown. Some of the highlights of the proposed legislation are the following:

1. The occupational diseases covered would be listed on a schedule;

2. Disability or death must result within 1 year after last exposure except for silicosis and asbestosis in which it may result within 3 years;

3. For silicosis and asbestosis. there must be 3 years of exposure;

4. The claim must be made against the employer within 6 months after disablement;

5. The claimant would be entitled to compensation from the employer in whose employ he was last exposed.

Editor's note: The second description, from a merged entry, says Brown was a member of the committee and that Mount wrote to him on January 17, 1935. No letter of that date is in this file; January 17 is the date of the draft legislation. Mount's letter of January 28 names Lloyd D. Heth, not Brown, as J-M's member of the committee.