Combustion Engineering, Inc

Combustion Engineering, Inc. was a Delaware company, incorporated in 1912 with a home in Windsor, Connecticut, that built boilers and, through R & I Refractory and Insulation Corporation, which it bought in 1963, made asbestos insulating cements, finishing cements, board and rope. It was a defendant in the Texas insulators' suits Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering and Borel v. Fibreboard. It was owned by ABB from 1990, filed for bankruptcy in 2003, and its asbestos claims are now paid by the Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust.

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

History

Combustion Engineering's sworn answers in Borel, filed in March 1970, give the company's own account of how it came to make asbestos insulation. They say Combustion Engineering itself made no insulating materials before December 31, 1967. R & I Refractory and Insulation Corporation, bought in June 1963, ran as a separate company until it was merged into Combustion Engineering on that date and became its C-E Refractory Division.¹ The same answers say R & I had begun making insulation containing asbestos "in about the year 1938."¹ A year earlier, in Tomplait, the division's vice president for engineering, A. S. Arwine, gave a different date: he said R & I had made asbestos-containing products since 1941 to his personal knowledge, that catalogs showed earlier manufacture, and that R & I was incorporated in New Jersey in about 1928.⁶ He gave the division's home as Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania.⁶

The data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers tells the story differently. It says that on June 5, 1963, a wholly owned subsidiary bought all the assets of Refractory and Insulation Corporation, whose plant it places at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, that the selling corporation dissolved two and a half years later, and that Combustion Engineering assumed certain liabilities.¹⁷ The Borel answers instead have R & I running as a separate company until it was merged into Combustion Engineering on December 31, 1967; the two accounts may describe different corporations, the seller and the buying subsidiary, but neither document says so.^1,17 The sheet adds that on April 3, 1964, a wholly owned subsidiary bought the Insulation Division of M. H. Detrick Company of Aurora, Illinois, with Combustion Engineering assuming no tort liability, and that on March 27, 1969, Combustion Engineering bought Walsh Refractories Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, which it says made mainly stoves, and assumed its liabilities.¹⁷ It lists the plants as Port Kennedy, Aurora and St. Louis, from June 5, 1963 to 1972, and says the company marketed the products listed in its exhibit from 1963 to 1975 and did not mine or mill asbestos.¹⁷

The company also made equipment for the asbestos industry itself. A 1977 advertisement in Asbestos offered fiber classifiers from C-E Bauer, a division of Combustion Engineering's Process Equipment Group in Springfield, Ohio.⁷

Asbestos products

The 1970 Borel answers list the products. They say R & I's line from before 1940 included Stic Tite and Super Stic Tite insulating cements, Super Finish finishing cement and Mix A, each described as containing asbestos.¹ The company's 1968 Tomplait answers list the same cements as made "from the year 1959 to the present time."⁸ Its No. 12 insulating block, made until 1959, is described as expanded perlite, cement binder and 5% amosite fiber.¹ Beginning in April 1964 R & I added a Detrick line that the answers say included an asbestos board, several asbestos cements, an asbestos rope of long-fiber amosite, and Detrick MHD finishing cement.¹ The answers also say R & I sold asphalt coatings made with asbestos fiber, among them Duriseal and Permiseal, which it bought already packaged.¹

The company's answers and an insurer's figures do not always agree. A booklet the Travelers Insurance Company prepared for an asbestos seminar gives the asbestos content of MHD as 68 percent and of Mix A as 61 percent.^9,10 The same booklet lists Gunisul and Castablock with 1 in its percent-asbestos column, while the company's sworn answers list their ingredients without asbestos, and a later answer in the Potter case says Castablock contained none.^11,12 The answers also differ on Pyroscat, a fireproofing treatment for structural steel: the 1968 Tomplait answers list no asbestos in it, while the 1970 Borel answers list asbestos fibers.^8,1 The product table in the 1980 Travelers data sheet adds its own figures. It lists No. 12 insulating block, at 4.5 percent amosite, from 1963 to 1966, although the Borel answers say it was made until 1959; it gives Castablock as 1.2 percent amosite, Gunisul as about 1 percent amosite, and Pyroscat fireproofing cement as 3 percent chrysotile, with an estimated stop date of June 8, 1972.^18,19 The same table lists Kaylo and Johns-Manville Thermobestos calcium silicate block and pipe covering, and J-M asbestos cloth and gasketing, among products Combustion Engineering distributed from 1963 to 1969, while the sheet's sales section says it had sold Kaylo and Johns-Manville products from 1963 up to the time of the sheet.^19,20,17

What the documents show

In February 1968, answering interrogatories in Tomplait, Combustion Engineering and R & I said that "No warnings were required because the products and materials manufactured as aforesaid were not dangerous."⁸ Two years later, in Borel, the company said that beginning in 1969 it had placed this warning on its asbestos products: "CAUTION: This product contains asbestos fibers. Excessive inhalation of asbestos may be harmful. If adequate ventilation is not possible, wear respirators approved by the U. S. Bureau of Mines."¹ The answers say this was done on the advice of industry spokesmen. They also say the company had not made the studies the plaintiff asked about, did not take dust samples in the field, and had seen no harmful effects among workers who made the products.¹

In a written deposition in Tomplait in November 1968, the company's medical director at Windsor, Dr. Edward F. Murphy, answered most of the plaintiff's questions about health studies, dust counts and the medical literature on asbestos by saying he had no knowledge of them.¹³ Asked whether there was a direct connection between asbestos and mesothelioma, he answered that he was not certain there was.¹³ He also said he recognized that asbestos "when improperly handled can be harmful to health," and, to a question saying the company's attorneys had answered that it did not recognize any connection between asbestos and asbestosis, he replied, "I feel that there is a connection between asbestos and asbestosis."¹³ In his 1969 answers, Arwine said that, to the best of his knowledge, R & I's long experience with asbestos in its plants had shown no lung disease among its employees, and that workers in direct contact with asbestos were required to wear simple face masks.⁶ The company's 1970 Borel answers give a different account: they say three employees who had worked for it for 20 years or more had shown some indication of lung disease, and that on reexamination in November 1968 no evidence of asbestosis was found.¹

The 1980 Travelers data sheet gives 1969 as the company's first knowledge of the hazards, "From a variety of sources," a year after Dr. Murphy's 1968 deposition answers, and gives 1969 as the year of its first warning label, which matches the Borel answers.^17,13,1 It gives the reasons for dropping products as removing asbestos from the materials and declining sales, and the date of the company's first workers' compensation claim as October 23, 1973.^17,21 On sales, it says the company denied selling to the Navy at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, admitted sales to the U.S. Government but had no records of them, and said that because of freight rates few of its asbestos products were sold west of the Mississippi, and very few in California.¹⁷

Lawsuits

Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering was an insulator's suit in federal court in Beaumont, Texas. The final judgment of May 28, 1969, records that Combustion Engineering and R & I, as a single defendant, settled before trial for $15,000, and that the jury then found for the one defendant that went to trial, Fibreboard.¹⁴ Combustion Engineering was also a defendant in Borel v. Fibreboard, which the same lawyer, Ward Stephenson, filed in the same court in October 1969.^1,4 In Migues v. Nicolet (1980), Combustion Engineering was one of the settling defendants that chose to take part in the court's post-trial proceedings.¹⁵ In Anderson v. Combustion Engineering (2002), a Wisconsin appeals court upheld a verdict that held the company 29 percent responsible for a power plant machinist's death; the court noted that six of the plant's eight boilers were made by Combustion Engineering or its predecessor and were insulated with asbestos.²

Bankruptcy and trust

The federal appeals court in Philadelphia wrote in 2004 that Combustion Engineering had defended asbestos litigation for nearly four decades until mounting claims brought it to the brink of insolvency.³ In the fall of 2002, it and its parent, Asea Brown Boveri, Inc., tried to resolve those claims, and claims against two ABB affiliates, through a prepackaged Chapter 11 plan.³ In In re Combustion Engineering (2004), the Third Circuit, after a 2003 bankruptcy court ruling on the plan, vacated the order confirming the plan and sent it back for further findings.^16,3 According to our trust page, the reorganization plan took effect in April 2006, and the trust was funded with about $1.24 billion in cash, ABB stock and insurance settlements.⁵

References

1. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Combustion Engineering answers to interrogatories (March 1970), pp. 1–13
2. Anderson v. Combustion Engineering, Inc. (Wis. Ct. App. 2002)
3. In re Combustion Engineering, Inc. (3d Cir. 2004)
4. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File (1962–1969)
5. Combustion Engineering Asbestos Trust
6. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File, answers to interrogatories by A. S. Arwine (March 1969), pp. 3–9
7. Asbestos, September 1977, p. 9
8. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File, Combustion Engineering and R & I response to plaintiff's interrogatories (February 14, 1968), pp. 1–5
9. MHD (Combustion Engineering), product page
10. Mix A (Combustion Engineering), product page
11. Gunisul (Combustion Engineering), product page
12. Castablock (Combustion Engineering), product page
13. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File, written deposition of Dr. Edward F. Murphy (November 15, 1968)
14. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File, final judgment (May 28, 1969)
15. Migues v. Nicolet Industries, Inc. (E.D. Tex. 1980)
16. In re Combustion Engineering (Bankr. D. Del. 2003)
17. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Combustion Engineering Product Information, p. 2
18. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Combustion Engineering Product Information, p. 4
19. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Combustion Engineering Product Information, p. 5
20. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Combustion Engineering Product Information, p. 6
21. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Combustion Engineering Product Information, p. 3

Asbestos trust

If you or a family member worked with or around Combustion Engineering, Inc's asbestos products and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust. Free case review.

Asbestos products

43 products our documents name Combustion Engineering, Inc as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Court cases

39 court decisions in our case-law library name Combustion Engineering, Inc as a defendant, newest first.

• Robichaux v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. (2023)
• Hutchins v. Anco Insulations, Inc. (2023)
• Voelker v. John Crane (Matter of Eighth Jud. Dist. Asbestos Litig., 2015)
• Brown v. Bell & Gossett Co. (2014)
• Motions for Access OF Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC (2013)
• In re Combustion Engineering, Inc. (2004)
• Torrejon v. Mobil Oil Co. (2004)
• Roberts v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (2004)
• In re Combustion Engineering (2003)
• Harris v. AC & S., Inc. (2003)
• Anderson v. Combustion Engineering, Inc. (2002)
• Harris v. AC & S., Inc. (2002)
• Emery v. Owens-Corporation (2001)
• Black v. ACandS, Inc. (2001)
• Abadie v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (2001)
• Abadie v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (2001)
• Miller v. Foster Wheeler Co. (1999)
• Lambert v. Babcock & Wilcox Co. (1999)
• Ruckstuhl v. Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1998)
• Baumgart v. Keene Bldg. Products Corp. (1995)
• Consorti v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1995)
• Vaughn v. Marine Transport Lines, Inc. (1989)
• Whatley v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Blazek v. Nicolet, Inc. (1988)
• Knox v. AC & S, Inc. (1988)
• Campolongo v. Celotex Corp. (1988)
• Goldman v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1987)
• Case v. Fibreboard Corp. (1987)
• In re Moorenovich (1986)
• Jenkins v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1986)
• Celotex Corp. v. Copeland (1985)
• Froud v. Celotex Corp. (1983)
• Wedgeworth v. Fibreboard Corp. (1983)
• Froud v. Celotex Corporation (1982)
• DeCosse v. Armstrong Cork Co. (1982)
• Clutter v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• Migues v. Nicolet Industries, Inc. (1980)
• Daniels v. Combustion Engineering, Inc. (1978)

In the Union Carbide documents

Combustion Engineering, Inc is named in 4 Union Carbide documents dated 1976 to 2001 (4 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Charles F. Raeburn to W. J. Burdett on the Nave and Dugger Asbestos Lawsuits in Knox County, Tennessee (1976) UC-4134 (mentioned)
• Summonses and Amended Complaints in Partain v. North Bros. Co. et al. and Cooper v. North Bros. Co. et al., Naming Union Carbide as Defendant (1983) UC-1411 (mentioned)
• Defendants' Exhibit List with General Exhibit List in Villarreal v. GAF Corporation Holdings, Inc., et al., Cameron County, Texas (2001) UC-2009 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association, 'What You Should Know About Asbestos and Health' (booklet, undated) UC-1341 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Combustion Engineering, Inc, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Combustion Engineering.

Where this comes from

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