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

A one-page letter of October 31, 1936, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to E. H. Jeffords, manager of its North Charleston, South Carolina, plant. Dr. H. F. Wilson of the South Carolina Board of Health had asked that the U.S. health service be allowed to inspect the plant and X-ray the employees. Simpson had no objection to the inspection but hesitated over the X-rays, "for if these Xray records are going to be made available to all the shyster lawyers and doctors in the county," the company "may have an endless number of suits against us." He would let the government take them if they were kept out of the hands of every "Tom, Dick and Harry" in the country.

What it shows

Simpson wanted the X-ray results for the company's own information. Letting the government take them, he wrote, "would be one way of getting them without arousing very much suspicion on the part of the employees," who would likely think the X-rays had something to do with the Social Security Act. He did "not want to bring a lot of suits down on us just about the time we are getting through with the old ones." He added that a health official in Ontario had told him there were practically no doctors who could tell asbestos dust from granite dust on an X-ray. A week later he agreed to the survey (letter of November 5, 1936).

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, 10/31/36, responding to Jefford's letter of 10/27 which indicates that a representative of the South Carolina Board of Health requests that permission be given to the U.S. Department of Health to examine the plant and take X-rays of employees. Simpson replies that he does not object to the inspection of the plant nor to the taking of X-rays as long as the X-rays are taken by the U.S. Department of Health and kept out of the hands of every "Tom, Dick and Harry" in the country. Simpson indicates that this is one way of not arousing very much suspicion among the employees and at the same time of taking X-rays because the employees might interpret them as being taken in connection with the Social Security Act. Simpson states that he certainly does not want "to bring a lot of suits down upon us just about the time we are getting through with the old ones."

Related documents

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

About this copy

This is document 212 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-001296 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001296.