J. P. Woodard to Ivan Sabourin on Saranac's Proposal to the Quebec Mining Association (1950)

A one-page letter of December 4, 1950, from J. P. Woodard of Johns-Manville to Ivan Sabourin, counsel to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, headed "Saranac's Proposal to Q. A. M. A." Woodard wrote that the wording in the Saranac Laboratory's proposal about releasing test data seemed "inadequate." "We have never intended to suppress information," he wrote, "but feel its release should be timely and that we should have the right of advance knowledge so we could make such defensive moves as might be available to us."

What it shows

Woodard asked Sabourin to write "a more precise understanding on release of information" into the agreement with Saranac, and quoted the clause he had sent to Vandiver Brown three weeks earlier (J. P. Woodard's memo of November 10, 1950). Under it, results were confidential, any paper was to go to the sponsor at least 30 days before publication "for its comments or criticism," and the sponsor and its products were not to be named without consent. A copy went to A. R. Fisher of J-M.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

J.P. Woodard letter to Ivan Sabourin, 12/4/50, stating that the wording in Saranac's proposal to the QAMA is inadequate re the publication of test data. Woodard states that "we have never intended to suppress information, but feel its release should be timely and that we should have the right of advanced knowledge so we could make such defensive moves as might be available to us." Sample of publication agreement on release of information is given.

Related documents

• J. P. Woodard to Vandiver Brown on Publication of Saranac Test Results (1950)

About this copy

This is document 146 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-001173 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001173.