Azrock Floor Products

Azrock Floor Products of San Antonio, Texas, later Azrock Industries, made floor tile, including Azrock vinyl asbestos tile. A federal appeals court opinion states that it made floor tiles containing asbestos from the 1930s to the early 1980s. Later court cases name Domco Products Texas as its successor in asbestos lawsuits.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

Products

A 1972 market study of the asbestos products industry by Morton Research Corporation, produced as a Union Carbide trial exhibit, lists an adhesive-backed vinyl asbestos tile for homes and light commercial use, in three styles and three colors each, from "Azrock Floor Products Division, Uvalde Rock Asphalt Company, San Antonio, Texas."¹

The library's own collection holds Azrock salesmen's samples. A green tile in Sage Brush V-334, dated December 1963, is printed on the back "Azrock Vinyl Asbestos Tile," "Micromatic Veining," in thicknesses of 1/16, 3/32 and 1/8 inch and a standard size of 9 by 9 inches, with a note that the tile was "also known as Vina-Lux."⁶ A red Carnation V-337 sample, dated February 1964, carries the same kind of printing.⁷ A sample box of several dozen small tiles is printed "Azrock Vinyl Asbestos Tile" and "Azrock Floor Products, San Antonio, Texas."² None of these samples has been tested; the asbestos content stated here is what the printing says.

A product listing in the Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases describes two Azrock lines, Palacio Del Sol and Terrazo Originals, as vinyl asbestos floor tiles, as of 1974.⁸⁹

Lawsuits and the end of asbestos use

In Guaranty National Insurance Co. v. Azrock Industries (5th Cir. 2000), an insurer asked to be excused from defending the company, which then did business as Azrock Commercial Flooring and had its principal place of business in Houston.³ The court's account of the facts says Azrock made floor tiles containing asbestos fibers from the 1930s to the early 1980s, and was sued in at least 33 personal-injury cases between January 1989 and March 1998, as well as one property-damage case.³ The court reversed the judgment for the insurer on the personal-injury suits (it affirmed as to the property-damage suit) and sent the case back for the trial court to decide whether the duty to defend was triggered under the "exposure theory," which looks to exposure to asbestos during the policy period.³

In Butler v. Amtico International (Wash. App. 2008), a floor installer's claim was against Domco Products, which the court called the successor to Azrock Industries, the maker of the vinyl asbestos tile he used.⁴ The plaintiff offered a Domco interrogatory answer from an unrelated California case stating that "By October 4, 1982," the company had completed a "reformulation of entire product line to eliminate use of asbestos fibers."⁴ The court declined to consider that answer, finding its lack of context made it more prejudicial than useful, but held on other evidence that the claim could go to trial.⁴

The caption of a 2018 New York case sues both Domco Products Texas and Tarkett, Inc., individually and as successors to Azrock Industries.⁵ In a 2019 decision in the New York City asbestos litigation over Azrock vinyl asbestos tile, the court refused to dismiss the case against Domco Products of Texas but dismissed the claim for punitive damages against it.¹⁰ The library holds no record of an Azrock bankruptcy or trust.

References

1. Union Carbide exhibit UC-2655: Morton Research Corporation, The Asbestos Products Industry: An Economic Investigation (1972), p. 27
2. Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample Box, ACL Doc 14640
3. Guaranty Nat. Ins. Co. v. Azrock Industries Inc. (5th Cir. 2000)
4. Butler v. Amtico International Inc. (Wash. App. 2008)
5. Pistone v. American Biltrite, Inc. (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2018)
6. Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample, Sage Brush V-334 (1963), ACL Doc 14645
7. Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample, Carnation V-337 (1964), ACL Doc 14643
8. Palacio Del Sol (Azrock Floor Products) product page
9. Terrazo Originals (Azrock Floor Products) product page
10. In re New York City Asbestos Litigation (N.Y. Sup. Ct., July 31, 2019)

Asbestos products

2 products our documents name Azrock Floor Products as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Palacio Del Sol (Azrock Floor Products)
• Terrazo Originals (Azrock Floor Products)

In our library

3 documents in our library name Azrock Floor Products, by collection.

Other library documents (3)

• Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample, Sage Brush V-334 (1963) (publisher)
• Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample, Carnation V-337 (1964) (publisher)
• Azrock Floor Products: Vinyl Asbestos Tile Sample Box (publisher)

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Azrock Floor Products, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.