Paul D. Burnum to C. L. Sheckler on Moving Dust Records Before the Ortega Hearing (1968)

A two-page handwritten note dated November 7, 1968 (received December 3), from Paul D. Burnum at J-M's Long Beach, California, plant to C. L. Sheckler, of J-M's corporate industrial hygiene staff, about George Ortega's workmen's compensation case. The company's lawyers had moved to quash a subpoena for "Dust measurements," but the case was taken off calendar before the motion was heard. With the hearing rescheduled for December, Burnum writes that he is "sending all Ind. Hygiene records to you, as per our conversation, so records will not be available at the Long Beach Plant."

What it shows

Burnum goes further. He and Alan Harris wondered whether Sheckler should "send a note requesting the books to be sent to you for review. Post dated." If subpoenaed, Burnum expects he may have to say that the books are "sometimes kept in the Plant but are your responsibility and in your custody." He was sending another plant's records too, "as a precaution." Two weeks earlier he had told the company's lawyers that J-M did not want its dust counts "as a matter of public record" (Burnum to Herlihy and Herlihy, October 1968). The note records a plan to move a plant's dust records out of reach of a subpoena, backed by a back-dated request.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter from Paul D. Burnum, J-M Long Beach, to Cliff Sheckler, dated 11/7/68, and date stamped 12/3/68, entitled "Re: George Ortega Workman's Comp Case" confirms that local attorneys had made a motion to quash a subpoena duces tecum seeking dust count records and that the matter had presently been taken off calendar. "The hearing is rescheduled for December and I am sending all industrial hygiene records to you, as per our conversation, so records will not be available at the Long Beach plant. . . Alan Harris and I discussed this and were wondering if advisable for you to send a note requesting the books to be sent to you for review. Postdated. If I am subpoenaed, I suppose I may be required to state that the books are sometimes kept in the plant but are your responsibility and in your custody. I am also sending the IID plant records as a precaution. Please advise."

Related documents

• Paul D. Burnum to Herlihy and Herlihy on Withholding Dust Counts in the Ortega Case (1968)