Manville Corporation 1982 Annual Report and Form 10-K (1983)

An 87-page copy of Manville Corporation's 1982 Annual Report and Form 10-K, its combined report to shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission for the year ended December 31, 1982, issued in early 1983. The cover states that "Contingent liabilities for asbestos-health claims cause Manville to file for Chapter 11 reorganization." The report explains that on August 26, 1982, when Manville and its U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries filed under Chapter 11, lawsuits were pending on behalf of about 16,500 people, and that the company projected more than 32,000 more by the year 2001, at an average cost of at least $40,000 a claim.

What it shows

The report puts the cost of handling the asbestos-health claims through ordinary lawsuits at "at least $1.9 billion," and gives Manville's historical average cost for about 4,110 claims closed by the end of 1982 as $16,845 a claim, not counting legal costs. It describes the company's February 1983 request that the bankruptcy court estimate the number and value of all asbestos-health claims, and the other claims it faced: from building owners, from other companies seeking contribution, and over other products. Manville reported a net loss of $97.6 million for 1982. The report is the company's own public account of why it entered bankruptcy, written about six months after the filing.