Smutko v. Johns-Manville, Court Papers (1940)

Court papers (38 pages) in Frank Smutko's suit against Johns-Manville Corporation, filed in the New Jersey Supreme Court for Hunterdon County in June 1940 and served on June 17 on C. W. Hite, the Manville plant's personnel manager. Smutko said that until about July 1938 he handled and breathed "minute particles, dusts, dirts, and substances, particularly asbestos" at the Manville, New Jersey, plant, was never warned, and was now suffering from "an active pulmonary tuberculosis"; he asked $25,000. J-M removed the case to federal court, with United States Guarantee Company as surety, and answered with nine defenses. The case was "amicably settled" and discontinued in March 1941.

What it shows

The complaint noted that his illness was not one of the diseases covered by New Jersey's workers' compensation law, which is why he could sue in court. J-M's answer pleaded that any illness came from "an ordinary risk of his employment" whose danger he understood, and that he failed to follow instructions. The chronology's page on the Lacho and Smutko suits also has Hite's August 1940 memo stating that "Smutko was never warned of any dust danger."

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 Frank Smutko v. J-M Corp. Complaint was filed on 6/20/40 in the Supreme Court of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Case was removed to the U.S.D.C., New Jersey. Smutko was a textile worker at J-M's Manville plant for approximately 3 years. U.S. Guarantee Company was the surety on the removal bond.

Related documents

• The Lacho and Smutko Suits Against Johns-Manville, with C. W. Hite's Memo on Smutko (1939)

About this copy

This is document 755 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-004047 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-004084.