Cement Asbestos Products Company

Cement Asbestos Products Company (Capco) of Birmingham, Alabama, made asbestos-cement water and sewer pipe in Alabama from the mid-1960s, later at plants in Ragland, Alabama, and Van Buren, Arkansas. It was partly owned by the American Smelting and Refining Company (Asarco) and the Mead Corporation, became wholly owned by Asarco in 1974, and was renamed CAPCO Pipe Company in 1980. Asarco filed for bankruptcy in 2005, and the ASARCO asbestos trust pays claims for exposure to Capco pipe.

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

History

In April 1965 Asbestos magazine, in an item following its note on Lake Asbestos of Quebec, which a later issue calls Asarco's wholly owned subsidiary, reported that the first shipments of asbestos fibre had been made to the new pipe plant of Cement Asbestos Products Company in Alabama, and that production was expected to start that month^{3, 9}. In 1980 and 1981 the magazine said Capco had been founded in 1963^{7, 10}.

By May 1967, the magazine reported, the company had completed its first full year of operations and had become established as a supplier of asbestos-cement pipe in the southeastern market; Asarco then held a 40 percent interest^{5, 9}. A federal court later wrote that the Mead Corporation acquired its ownership interest in Capco on November 30, 1968, when it merged with Woodward Corporation, which held that interest⁶. Asbestos reported in October 1971 that Asarco owned 49 percent of Capco and Mead 51 percent, that the year had been difficult because of a three-month strike at the Ragland plant, and that a new plant at Van Buren, Arkansas, had been producing plastic pipe and began making asbestos-cement pipe in January 1971⁴. A May 1972 report gave July 1971 as the month the Van Buren asbestos-cement plant came into production¹¹. The library's sources give both dates.

Mead sold out in 1974. The federal court gave the date Mead divested its interest as September 30, 1974⁶; Asbestos reported in January 1976 that Asarco had acquired Mead's 51 percent interest in October 1974, and the 1975 operations report of Lake Asbestos of Quebec gives October 1, 1974^{2, 12}. The 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, says Asarco became the sole owner in September 1974²⁹. The magazine then described Capco as making asbestos-cement pipe and plastic pipe for water distribution and sewer systems at plants in Alabama and Arkansas².

Capco's trademark records in the library give first use of the Capco name and of Permaflex Water Pipe as June 24, 1969^{13, 14}. A 1969 photograph shows stacked pipe stenciled CAPCO, one length marked with the company's name, a 6-inch size, Class 150 and a test pressure of 525 PSI¹⁵. The Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases also lists two Capco asbestos-cement boards, Granostruct and Granowall^{16, 17}.

Through the 1970s the company's officers appeared in Asbestos. William R. Bond was chairman in 1975¹⁸. In March 1977 the magazine reported that I. L. (Lee) Taylor, Capco's vice president for marketing and sales, had been elected chairman of the Association of Asbestos-Cement Pipe Producers¹⁹. In January 1979 it reported that Johns-Manville Canada and Atlas Asbestos had filed a complaint with Canadian customs authorities about asbestos-cement pressure pipe made by or for Capco being brought into Canada²⁰.

In September 1980 the magazine reported that the company's new name, CAPCO Pipe Company, Inc., reflected its move into products other than asbestos-cement pipe; it had bought a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe plant at Evansville, Indiana, and was making asbestos-cement pipe and cast-iron fittings at Van Buren and Ragland⁷. In a New Year's message that December, president Warren T. Whitley wrote that the industry had been challenged "on all fronts" in 1980, and that he hoped asbestos-cement pipe would "again rise to the fore"²¹.

The Sourcebook's short history of Asarco, which reads as Asarco's own position, describes Capco Pipe Company, Inc. as an Asarco subsidiary that made asbestos-cement pipe at one plant, pipe used only underground²⁹. The 1980 magazine report above, written six years before the book, describes the company making asbestos-cement pipe and cast-iron fittings at both Van Buren and Ragland⁷. The book says Asarco itself never mined, processed, distributed, made or sold asbestos or asbestos products, that it owned the fiber producer Lac d'Amiante du Québec, and that Asarco, Lac d'Amiante and Capco were entirely separate corporations; it adds that Asarco believed it should not be named in asbestos suits²⁹.

What the 1975 Lake Asbestos report says

The 1975 report on operations of Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Asarco's mining subsidiary, includes a section on Capco signed by Michael J. Messel and dated January 16, 1976^{12, 22}. It calls 1975 "a poor and difficult year for Capco," with a gross loss of $2,203,283 blamed on the construction recession, price cutting, fibre shortages, the write-off of the PVC plant at Van Buren and some poor-quality pipe in inventory¹². It says Capco would use about 8,500 tons of fibre from Lake that year, and it lists environmental problems as the most urgent engineering work, at an estimated immediate cost of $200,000¹². It also says Mead "certainly let Capco run down more than was originally evident," with practically no spare parts²². The same report's research section records fiberizing tests at Van Buren on opening "blue and chrysotile fibers"²³.

The asbestos industry association

Capco was one of the eight companies that formed the Asbestos Information Association/North America (AIA/NA) in December 1970, according to the association's own 1971 prospectus²⁴. The prospectus lists the association's aims, among them to "Publicly rebut irresponsible and uninformed criticism"²⁴. Capco is named among the sponsors printed on an AIA/NA letter in a Union Carbide trial exhibit that collects the association's letters to the editors of The Wall Street Journal (1972) and Consumers Research (1974)²⁵, and on later AIA/NA membership lists, including one from 1980 that gives its address in Birmingham²⁶.

Litigation

Two decisions in the library concern Capco. In McGuffie v. Mead Corp. (2010), a former Capco machinist at Ragland sued the successor to Mead⁶. The plaintiffs pointed to correspondence in which William Bond, then president of Woodward Corporation and a Mead vice president, asked Capco about its policy on X-raying employees and the steps it had taken to eliminate dust, and to a 1971 Woodward inspection report on safety deficiencies with Capco's reply that they had been fixed⁶. The federal court held that this did not show Mead had taken on a duty for safety at the plant and granted summary judgment to Mead's successor⁶.

In Bagwell v. Union Carbide Corporation (2019), a Louisiana appeals court reviewed a jury verdict that assigned 25 percent of the fault to Capco, which was not a party; the claim against Capco concerned the Ragland plant, which the opinion calls an amphibole asbestos-cement pipe plant²⁷. The opinion refers to Capco's bankruptcy and inability to pay, and upheld the trial court's decision to allow that evidence²⁷. On rehearing in September 2020, the same court vacated that opinion and the trial court's judgments and sent the case back for a new trial²⁸.

Bankruptcy and trust

Our ASARCO trust page states that Asarco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005, that its reorganization was confirmed in 2009, and that the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust pays claims for exposure to Capco asbestos-cement pipe as well as to Asarco's raw fiber⁸.

References

1. Ragland, Alabama plant page
2. Asbestos, January 1976, p. 20
3. Asbestos, April 1965, p. 15
4. Asbestos, October 1971, p. 50
5. Asbestos, May 1967, p. 20
6. McGuffie v. Mead Corp. (E.D. Pa. 2010)
7. Asbestos, September 1980, p. 22
8. ASARCO Asbestos Trust claims
9. Asbestos, April 1968, p. 27
10. Asbestos, March 1981, p. 26
11. Asbestos, May 1972, p. 42
12. Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Ltd.: Report on Operations, Year 1975 (1976), p. 58
13. Capco (Cement Asbestos Products), product page
14. Specification page: Capco Permaflex Water Pipe, Material Specification CA102 69 (1969)
15. Product photo: CAPCO cement asbestos pipe (Cement Asbestos Products Co.)
16. Granostruct, product page
17. Granowall, product page
18. Asbestos, September 1975, p. 42
19. Asbestos, March 1977, p. 39
20. Asbestos, January 1979, p. 38
21. Asbestos, December 1980, p. 8
22. Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Ltd.: Report on Operations, Year 1975 (1976), p. 60
23. Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Ltd.: Report on Operations, Year 1975 (1976), p. 52
24. AIA-79: AIA/NA Founding Member Executives to Raymond J. Sachs, Porter-Hayden Co., Inviting Membership, with Prospectus (1971), p. 5
25. UC-1642: Asbestos Information Association Letters to the Editors of Consumers Research (1974) and The Wall Street Journal (1972), p. 3
26. UC-4878: Asbestos Information Association/North America List of Member Companies (1980)
27. Bagwell v. Union Carbide Corporation (La. Ct. App. 2019)
28. Bagwell v. Union Carbide Corporation (La. Ct. App. 2020, on rehearing)
29. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 162.

Asbestos products

4 products our documents name Cement Asbestos Products Company as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Capco (Cement Asbestos Products)
• Granostruct (Cement Asbestos Products Co. (Capco))
• Granowall (Cement Asbestos Products Co. (Capco))
• Permaflex Water Pipe (Cement Asbestos Products)

Plants

Plants where asbestos products were made that the documents say Cement Asbestos Products Company ran.

• Cement Asbestos Products Company / CAPCO Pipe Company, Inc. plant at Ragland, Alabama
• Cement Asbestos Products Company / CAPCO Pipe Company, Inc. plant at Van Buren, Arkansas

Court cases

2 court decisions in our case-law library name Cement Asbestos Products Company as a defendant, newest first.

• Bagwell v. Union Carbide Corporation (2019)
• McGUFFIE v. Mead Corp. (2010)

In our library

2 documents in our library name Cement Asbestos Products Company, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

• Product photo: CAPCO cement asbestos pipe (Cement Asbestos Products Co.) (1969) (publisher)
• Specification page: Capco Permaflex Water Pipe, Material Specification CA102 69 (Cement Asbestos Products Co.) (1969) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Cement Asbestos Products Company is named in 7 Union Carbide documents dated 1972 to 1980 (7 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Asbestos Information Association/North America (M. M. Swetonic) to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal Objecting to Barry Newman's Asbestos Article (1972) UC-1470 (mentioned)
• W. N. Johnson Transmittal to F. H. Larrison and E. A. Piersall of AIA/NA Memos on FDA and Bureau of Mines Asbestos Actions (1972) UC-4282 (mentioned)
• W. N. Johnson to F. H. Larrison and E. A. Piersall Forwarding AIA/NA Memos on the FDA Asbestos Task Force and the Bureau of Mines Asbestos Dust Standard (1972) UC-5096 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association Letters to the Editors of Consumers Research (1974) and The Wall Street Journal (1972) UC-1642 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association/North America List of Member Companies (1980) UC-4878 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association/North America, Descriptive Brochure with Membership List (undated) UC-3140 (mentioned)
• AIA/NA Member Companies, Environmental Control Sub-Committee and Counsel Roster UC-3877 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Cement Asbestos Products Company, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Cement Asbestos Products Co · Cement Asbestos Products Co. · Cement Asbestos Products Company (CAPCO).

Where this comes from

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