Marshall v. Johns-Manville, Wrongful Death Suit for Helen Marshall (1929)

Court papers from Robert Marshall, administrator of the estate of his daughter Helen Marshall, v. Johns-Manville Corporation, filed in the New Jersey Supreme Court for Somerset County in 1929 and removed to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey (37 pages). The papers include J-M's petition for removal and bond (New York Indemnity Company, surety) filed October 10, 1929; J-M's answer, which admitted she worked at the Manville plant from December 28, 1926, to October 1928 and pleaded that she failed to protect herself "by using the mask and other appliances provided"; the plaintiff's reply; and affidavits by Emil Ramer and a J-M stenographer with a statement Robert Marshall signed on December 5, 1929, in the office of plant manager Archibald Hughes.

What it shows

In the statement, Marshall, himself a J-M worker, said Helen died on December 24, 1928, at about 19 or 20, after working for J-M for three or four years, and that he did not go to the company for money "because I felt and knew that the company for which my daughter was working had nothing to do with her death." He said attorney Samuel Greenstone visited him a few months later, and that years before he had gone to Greenstone about suing over the deaths of two other daughters. The statement is one of several J-M gathered in late 1929 in the Manville suits brought by Greenstone (Motley #738, #740, #743). The pages here do not show how the case ended.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Various pleadings filed in Robert Marshall v. J-M Corp. (Deceased: Helen Marshall). Complaint was filed on 9/26/29 in the Supreme Court of Somerset County, New Jersey. Case was removed to the U.S.D.C., New Jersey. Marshall was a textile worker at J-M's Manville plant for approximately 2 years. New York Indemnity was the surety on the removal bond.

Related documents

• Helen Zackwiejz v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Motion to Quash (1929)
• Bartus v. Johns-Manville, Pleadings and Worker's Statement Withdrawing the Suit (1929)
• Strelec v. Johns-Manville, Wrongful Death Suit for Mike Strelec (1929)

About this copy

This is document 744 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-003579 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-003615.