Sumner Simpson to E. H. Jeffords Allowing Public Health Service X-Rays of Workers (1936)

A one-page letter of November 5, 1936, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to E. H. Jeffords, general manager of the company's General Asbestos & Rubber Division in North Charleston, South Carolina. After a letter from Dr. Lanza, Simpson told Jeffords he could let the U.S. Public Health Service take X-ray pictures of the plant's employees, on the understanding that they were for public health information only. Jeffords was to stress "that we do not want them given to shyster lawyers and doctors so as to be the subject of suits, for, as you know, we have had enough adjustments for any one company."

What it shows

This letter settled the question Simpson had raised a week earlier (his letter of October 31, 1936). The company agreed to the government X-ray survey, but its first concern was that the results not be used in claims against it: "We are perfectly willing to help them in every possible way, but they in turn must help us so far as they can legally do so." A copy went to Julian Mitchell, the company's attorney in Charleston.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

S. Simpson letter to E. H. Jeffords, 11/5/36, asking Jeffords to advise the Public Health Service that they may take X-rays of R-M's employees with the understanding that the X-rays are only available for public health information and that "we do not want them given to shyster lawyers and doctors so as to be the subject of suits for, as you know, we have had enough adjustments for any one company. We are perfectly willing to help them in every possible way, but they in turn must help us so far as they can legally do so."

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to E. H. Jeffords on X-Rays and Fear of Suits (1936)

About this copy

This is document 211 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-001295 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001295.