Manville Corporation Board of Directors Minutes Authorizing the Chapter 11 Petition (1982)

Excerpts, two pages, from the minutes of a special meeting of Manville Corporation's Board of Directors held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 25, 1982, in the Murray Hill room of the Harley Hotel in New York City. The board received the Special Committee's report recommending "the immediate filing of a petition under Chapter 11," heard the projections and the company's financial position, and unanimously resolved "that the Corporation shall file for relief under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code."

What it shows

Committee chairman J. P. Schroeder distributed the report and the board paused to read it. Richard B. Von Wald then summarized the data the committee had reviewed: the projected cost of disposing of new and existing suits, projected new cases by disease over 1982 to 2001, and cash flow forecasts. Schroeder described the advice of the committee's accounting expert and the options examined, and Johannes described the "financial dilemma" the company would face outside Chapter 11, including possible default on its loan agreements. After Michael Crames of Levin & Weintraub was introduced, John A. McKinney, the chief executive, told the board that filing was "the unavoidable consequence of the continuing high level of asbestos health litigation and the only way to treat all creditors and claimants in an even handed and fair manner." In his opinion "The failure of the Federal Government to recognize its responsibility in creating the occupational health catastrophe that exists today combined with the refusal of the Corporation's insurers to pay" left "no other option available." The petition was filed the next morning.

About this copy

The excerpt is numbered 29 in the binder, and asterisks mark passages left out.