Vandiver Brown to M. F. Judd on Changes to the Metropolitan Life Report (1934)

A one-page letter of December 24, 1934, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, to M. F. Judd of Raybestos-Manhattan, headed "Preliminary Metropolitan Report." Brown explains that the galley proof of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's preliminary study had gone back to Dr. A. J. Lanza before Judd could examine it, because Lanza had word from a Dr. Sayers in Washington that unless the proof came back with changes by Monday it would be printed as it stood, in a government publication due December 28. Brown writes that he and George Hobart "together canvassed fairly thoroughly the points in the proof to which we could justifiably suggest additions, omissions or changes in phraseology that will be beneficial from the Industry viewpoint."

What it shows

Brown adds that Raybestos-Manhattan's interest in the report "is identical to that of Johns-Manville," so "whatever we may be able to accomplish will be for the benefit of both." The letter closes a month in which J-M's lawyers read Lanza's report before publication and asked for changes: Brown's comments of December 10, Hobart's of December 15, and Brown's letter of December 18 telling Judd that Lanza would likely accede to most of their requests.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

V. Brown wrote to Judd at RM about changes to Lanza's report that would be seen as "beneficial from the industry viewpoint." The changes needed to be suggested and made promptly in order for them to be completed by the time the report was to be published; it was planned for publication by a government entity on 12/28/1934.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to Dr. A. J. Lanza with Comments on the Galley Proof (1934)
• George S. Hobart to Vandiver Brown on the Metropolitan Life Galley Proof (1934)
• Vandiver Brown to M. F. Judd Sending the Galley Proof of the Metropolitan Life Study (1934)