K. G. Gulley Memo on Workers' Compensation Occupational Disease Files in Commercial Union v. Johns-Manville (1981)

A four-page Johns-Manville internal memo of December 25, 1981, from K. G. Gulley to the Commercial Union v. Johns-Manville file, an insurance coverage suit. Answering discovery requests, Gulley had looked plant by plant for workers' compensation occupational disease claims made after 1933 and before 1952. At the Manville, New Jersey, plant there had been about 175 such claims related to asbestos before 1965, but only one pre-1952 file; Long Beach's first asbestos claim was about 1954; at Waukegan, Illinois, many inactive personnel files had never been sorted, and J-M attorney Helen Marsh said she "would not be surprised to find" pre-1952 claims among them.

What it shows

Gulley writes that he had learned things that "contradicts information previously supplied" by J-M's asbestos-health legal group. The "nice, neat set" of segregated Manville claim files he had been told about did not exist, and a lawyer who reviewed them for privilege had also removed papers "not typically found in a workers' compensation file." At Waukegan, as many as 14,000 inactive personnel files had never been checked for claims. At Nashua, New Hampshire, claim files were mixed with personnel files in several places, and the administrator was "surprised" no one had ever tried to learn what was in them. The memo shows how little J-M's own lawyers knew in 1981 about the company's early compensation records, and how much those records mattered to its insurance fight over who had to pay.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In a memorandum to Robert S. Venning, Esq. of Heller Erman, White & McAuliffe re Commercial Union v. Johns-Manville, dated 12/25/81, regarding Workers' Compensation Files, K.G. Gulley describes the investigation which was centered on Workers' Compensation occupational disease claim files for claims made after 1933 and before 1952. Gulley states that prior to 1965 there were approximately 175 Workers' Compensation claims filed at the Manville facility in NJ where the petitioner alleged to have contracted an occupational disease related to asbestos exposures.

Gulley states that there was only one pre-1952 Workers' Compensation occupational disease claim filed at Manville. In Long Beach, CA, the first asbestos-related occupational disease claim was made by an employee in approximately 1954. In Waukegan, IL, Gulley states that Helen Marsh stated she would not be surprised to find, within the 10,000 plus inactive personnel files, pre-1952 occupational disease claims. Gulley has no specific information as to Marrero and Nashua.

Editor's note: J-M's description says the memo is addressed to Robert S. Venning of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. The memo is addressed to the "Commercial Union v. Johns-Manville File," and Venning is not named in the visible distribution.