Johns-Manville Legal Department Presentation to the Board on Asbestos Litigation (1979)

Charts from the Legal Department's presentation to Johns-Manville's board on August 2, 1979. They show asbestos health plaintiffs rising from 24 before 1975 to 1,182 in 1978 and 1,286 in 1979 through August (3,636 in all), new cases numbering 1,095 for January to August 1979 against 792 for all of 1978, and an estimate of 2,000 plaintiffs for 1979. A trial chart lists twelve cases tried, six for each side. Further charts list the "Coverup & Conspiracy Allegations" being made against the company and weigh a federal compensation law against the lawsuits.

What it shows

The board minutes for that day record that G. E. Parker, R. B. VonWald and D. H. Markusson gave "a detailed review of the current status of the Company's asbestos health litigation" (board minutes, 1979). The charts show the growth plainly. Open cases of all kinds rose from 281 at the end of 1975 to 2,102 on June 30, 1979, 1,753 of them occupational health cases; 1,961 were "completely or partially insured." One copy of the monthly chart counts 1,962 open cases as of July 19, 1979, another 2,170 as of September 4, 1979. Shipyard workers were the largest group of 1979 plaintiffs named by trade.

The trial chart begins with Borel in 1974 (a plaintiff's verdict of $79,436.24, J-M's share $9,750.00) and includes a 1978 verdict of $750,000 in Dishner, appealed and settled for $275,000 with J-M the only defendant. The class action list counts 17 suits on behalf of other companies' workers or neighbors, three by J-M employees, four in which class treatment was denied, and none granted.

The allegations and the legislative answer

One chart lists seven "Coverup & Conspiracy Allegations": the Raybestos-Manhattan correspondence, "Control of medical literature," "Control and coverup of medical research -- Saranac Lake" (the Saranac Laboratory), Dr. Kenneth Smith, workers' compensation cases, "Withholding information from employees," and Wilbur Ruff (see the Ruff deposition of 1978). The Raybestos-Manhattan correspondence is the set now known as the Sumner Simpson Papers.

The legislation charts set out what J-M wanted from a federal compensation law. The benefits to J-M included "Elimination of threat of punitive damages," "Predictability of costs," "Government sharing of financial burden" and "Defusing of asbestos issue"; the drawbacks were "Cost," "Possible loss of control of asbestos situation" and "Adverse customer impact." Among the "Elements essential to JM" were an "Exclusive no-fault remedy - elimination of third party lawsuits" and "No presumption of disease." A 20-point chart compares the Hart and Fenwick proposals with third-party lawsuits. The last page is an organization chart of the Legal Department: the asbestos health section had six attorneys, three paralegals and three support staff.

About this copy

Some charts are later than the meeting: the plaintiff table runs "through Aug." and one monthly chart is dated September 4, 1979. A handwritten note beside the first allegation is illegible.