N. T. Amarino on a Wall Street Journal Inquiry About Vella v. Wise (1975)

A confidential Johns-Manville "Editorial Request" form of August 21, 1975, signed by N. T. Amarino (copies to G. E. Parker, W. F. Goodwin, D. Markusson and J. D. Murray), recording a call from David Graulich of the Wall Street Journal's Pittsburgh bureau. Graulich was writing about Vella v. Wise, in which Dr. Wise, retained by J-M to examine employees at Pittsburg, California, was found liable for failing to tell a worker he had symptoms of asbestosis; Dr. Wise's defense was that J-M had told him not to disclose findings to patients. Graulich asked whether J-M agreed that the doctor was to inform only J-M. Amarino's answer after research: "Apparently J-M would concur."

What it shows

Amarino records that the $351,000 award to Mr. Vella was on appeal, so J-M declined to comment, and that about five similar cases involving Dr. Wise were waiting to be heard. J-M's former medical director described the same system weeks later: plant doctors did not decide what workers were told (Dr. Kenneth Smith's taped message, September 1975).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

N. Amarino writes a memorandum on 8/21/75 regarding JMC Editorial Request. David Graulich of the Pittsburgh, PA bureau of the Wall Street Journal requested comments on the Vella v. Wise case. Graulich's question refers to J-M's policy on having doctors "inform only J-M and not the patient" of symptoms of asbestosis. Amarino and Bill Murray researched the issue and concluded that J-M did have such a policy.