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Chrysler Corporation

Chrysler Corporation was one of the large American automakers. Our library's documents show it making asbestos brake linings, marketing an asbestos board air-conditioning duct in 1942, and buying Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos for sealants made at its chemical plant in Trenton, Michigan, from at least 1971 into the 1980s. It has been a defendant in brake-product cases and went through bankruptcy in 2009; our library holds no record of an asbestos trust for it.

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Background

Chrysler Corporation was founded in 1925 and became one of the three large American automakers. A 2015 New York opinion recounts that Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz AG in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler, and that in 2007 Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management and renamed Chrysler LLC; a 2007 New York decision names the defendant as "Daimler Chrysler."93 A Pennsylvania appeals court recorded that "on or about June 1, 2009, GMC and Chrysler filed petitions for bankruptcy," and the 2015 opinion says that in June 2009 "the company known as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy with Fiat SpA as an owner," and that Chrysler Group LLC was later renamed FCA US LLC.89 Our library has no record of an asbestos trust coming out of that bankruptcy.

Asbestos products

In September 1942 the trade magazine Asbestos reported that Chrysler's Airtemp Division was marketing an air-conditioning duct called Formdux. The magazine said Chrysler described it as "a hard surfaced board made of a high percentage of short fibre asbestos."4

Chrysler sold brake linings under its MoPar parts name. An undated advertisement in our library for MoPar Cyclebond brake lining promises "No Rivets! No Rivet Holes! Up to 75% Longer Wear!" and says the lining was supplied by Chrysler Corporation; the advertisement itself does not mention asbestos.10 A 1967 patent assigned to Chrysler, for brake linings made with synthetic rubber binders, gives as its first example a formula in which 5K asbestos is the largest ingredient, 57.8 parts by weight.1 A Union Carbide salesman wrote in 1977 that Chrysler had two plants at its Trenton site, "a sealant plant and a brake plant," and that asbestos levels at the brake plant were higher than at the sealant plant.2

Calidria asbestos in sealants

Union Carbide's RG-244 grade of Calidria was used in Chrysler's sealants as a thickener.11 A May 1967 Union Carbide research report lists Chrysler among the Detroit companies where its staff made technical service calls on plastics uses.12 Union Carbide's year-end sales report for 1971 lists Chrysler Corporation at Trenton, Michigan, as a customer.5 In May 1972 a buyer in Chrysler's Chemical Division, H. A. York, answered a Union Carbide price increase for RG-244 by asking it to complete Chrysler's forms before he would proceed with approvals.13

Union Carbide salesman Edward J. Kleber's call reports trace the account through the late 1970s. After an October 5, 1977 call he wrote that a Chrysler chemist said he had been told to develop no new products containing asbestos, and that Dr. G. M. Sastry, Chrysler's research and development director, was worried whether the government would allow asbestos in sealants "over the long haul."14 Kleber's report of an October 21, 1977 visit says Sastry wanted to be ready "when the asbestos ban comes."2 The report puts "the root of the problem" with the United Auto Workers, who it says were determined to remove all asbestos from both Trenton plants. It says the main question was how many asbestos fibers workers were "taking home on their clothes at night." Kleber wrote that Union Carbide tried to convince Chrysler that the amount carried home was "almost negligible," and that Chrysler agreed but said "facts are not the overriding issue here."2 In November 1977 Kleber and H. B. Rhodes of Union Carbide brought Chrysler plans for a hood system to keep dust down while RG-244 bags were handled.11

A Union Carbide laboratory report of August 1978 called Chrysler a long-time customer "who used excellent dust control equipment." It said Chrysler had mentioned informally in late 1977 that its fiber counts, which had been "in the low tenths of a fiber/cc," now showed an occasional result in the 1–2 fiber/cc range.15 A March 1978 call report says Chrysler's fiber counts were "around 0.1 fibers/cc" and that Chrysler had been threatening to formulate RG-244 out of all its products.16 Union Carbide's plans for 1978 included trying to resolve a "very sensitive toxicology issue" to the satisfaction of both Chrysler Chemical and the UAW.17 By March 1982 a Union Carbide salesman reported that RG-244 was "used wherever it will work in formulations for all Chrysler cars," though sales had fallen with smaller cars and lower car sales.6

A 1995 report to Congress by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists a 1990 NIOSH health hazard evaluation of Chrysler Chemical Division in Trenton among the agency's investigations of possible asbestos contamination carried home on workers' clothing. The report says asbestos was found on workers' clothes as they left the site in that investigation and one other.18

Chrysler's own statements

Asbestos reported in March 1980 that, among the responses to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on substitutes for asbestos, "Chrysler Corporation said that asbestos used during brake operations is almost entirely nonfibrous and there is no evidence to indicate that this is any more of a health hazard than any other mineral dust."19

Court cases

In Black v. Abex Corp. (1999), the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of market-share and alternative-liability claims against Chrysler, General Motors, Borg-Warner and Allied-Signal over friction products. The court observed that a product containing seventy-five percent asbestos would create a greater risk of harm than one containing only seven percent.7 Chrysler was also a defendant in Blase v. Allied Signal Inc. (Pennsylvania, 1996), in which the court granted summary judgment for the defendants.20

In Matter of New York City Asbestos Litigation (2007), a case over a worker's grinding and installing of friction products, a jury assigned Daimler Chrysler 10% of the fault and found that it acted "with reckless disregard for the safety of others," which made it liable for the full verdict. Chrysler argued that the evidence did not support the recklessness finding. The court disagreed. It pointed to a 1969 Michigan Department of Public Health report that, it said, concluded corrective action was needed at Chrysler's brake plants; to the testimony of a Chrysler friction products engineer; to ventilation and exposure limits Chrysler set for its own workers in the 1960s and 1970s; and to a 1970 notice from a fiber supplier about caution labels on its asbestos bags.3

References

  1. Friction elements and methods of making the same (US Patent 3,305,519, 1967), pp. 1–2
  2. UC-586: Union Carbide Customer Call Reports on Chrysler Chemical, Trenton, Michigan, Concerning RG-244 Asbestos (1975–1982), p. 1 (call of October 21, 1977)
  3. Matter of New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2007 NY Slip Op 27282 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2007)
  4. Asbestos, September 1942, p. 41
  5. Union Carbide 191: John L. Myers Transmittal of December and Year-End 1971 Calidria Asbestos Sales Report (1972), p. 11
  6. UC-586 (1975–1982), p. 3 (call of March 11, 1982)
  7. Black v. Abex Corp., 603 N.W.2d 182 (N.D. 1999)
  8. Betz v. Pneumo Abex LLC, 998 A.2d 962 (Pa. Super. 2010), n. 2
  9. In re New York City Asbestos Litigation, 2015 NY Slip Op 31144 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 6, 2015), text and n. 5
  10. Advertisement: MoPar Cyclebond Brake Lining (Chrysler Corporation)
  11. UC-589: E. J. Kleber's Union Carbide Call Reports on Chrysler, Trenton, MI, on RG-244 (1975–1979), p. 1 (call of November 19, 1977)
  12. UC-758: R. G. Woolery to Distribution List: Asbestos Research & Development Monthly Summary Report for May 1967 (1967), p. 3
  13. UC-2240: H. A. York (Chrysler) to T. P. Norris on the RG-244 Price Increase (1972), p. 1; UC-1514 (another copy)
  14. UC-4479: E. J. Kleber Call Report on Chrysler Corporation, Trenton, MI (1977), p. 1
  15. UC-1525: H. B. Rhodes to J. L. Myers on the Occurrence of Ultra-Fine Fibers in Calidria RG-244 Asbestos (1978), p. 2
  16. UC-586 (1975–1982), p. 2 (call of March 16, 1978)
  17. UC-5369: E. J. Kleber to R. E. Byrne, Jr. on Calidria Asbestos Midwest 1977 Summary (1978), p. 2
  18. Report to Congress on Workers' Home Contamination Study Conducted Under the Workers' Family Protection Act (1995), pp. 109–110, 132
  19. Asbestos, March 1980, p. 26
  20. Blase v. Allied Signal Inc., 36 Pa. D. & C.4th 491 (Pa. Com. Pl. 1996)

People

People the documents tie to Chrysler Corporation, most often named first, with the titles the documents give them.

Asbestos products

1 product our documents name Chrysler Corporation as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Court cases

3 court decisions in our case-law library name Chrysler Corporation as a defendant, newest first.

In our library

1 document in our library name Chrysler Corporation, by collection.

Other library documents (1)

In the Union Carbide documents

Chrysler Corporation is named in 15 Union Carbide documents dated 1967 to 1979 (15 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Chrysler Corporation, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Chrysler · Chrysler Corp.

Where this comes from

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

Mentioned on this site

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“Chrysler Corporation.” AsbestosClaims.Law Library. https://asbestosclaims.law/library/organizations/chrysler-corporation.

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This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.