Release and Indemnity Agreement Settling Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering (1969)

A five-page release and indemnity agreement signed on March 24, 1969, in Jefferson County, Texas, by Claude J. Tomplait, an insulator, and his lawyer Ward Stephenson, in Tomplait's suit in federal court at Beaumont (Civil Action 5402). Five defendants paid $15,000 each, $75,000 in all: Combustion Engineering with R & I Refractory & Insulation, Johns-Manville Products Corporation, Owens-Corning Fiberglas, Eagle-Picher Industries, and Pittsburgh Corning with Unarco and Union Asbestos and Rubber. Of that, $7,500 went to three insurers that had intervened and $67,500 to Tomplait and Stephenson. The release expressly kept Tomplait's claim against Fibreboard Paper Products, "who does not participate in and who is not a party to this compromise agreement."

What it shows

Tomplait also agreed to indemnify the settling companies and assigned them any part of a judgment against Fibreboard that Fibreboard might in turn recover from them. Fibreboard alone went to trial, and in May 1969 the jury found for it. The full court file, including the motion for judgment on these settlements, is in the Tomplait case file. Five months after the verdict Stephenson filed Clarence Borel's suit against many of the same companies (the Borel case file).

About this copy

The first page carries a defendant's exhibit sticker ("#1, Civ-5402," dated April 4, 1969).