The Eagle-Picher Company

Eagle-Picher was a Cincinnati company with an insulation plant in Joplin, Missouri, that made mineral wool insulating cements that contained asbestos, among them Super 66 and One-Cote, and sold pipe covering and block under its own names. It was a defendant in insulators' asbestos lawsuits in Texas from the 1960s. It filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and its claims are now paid by the Eagle-Picher Industries asbestos 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

According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, the company was founded in 1843 and incorporated in Ohio on January 10, 1867, as the Eagle White Lead Co. It became the Eagle-Picher Lead Co. on June 6, 1916, after a merger with the Picher Lead Co., the Eagle-Picher Company on March 27, 1945, and Eagle-Picher Industries on March 22, 1966.²³

In early 1933 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, listed trademarks passed for The Eagle-Picher Lead Co. of Cincinnati, among them "66," for "insulation cement, asbestos cement, wallboard, etc."³ In 1938 a patent for making heat-insulating material from magnesium oxysulphate crystals formed "in the presence of asbestos fibres" was granted to a Joplin, Missouri, inventor and assigned to the Eagle Picher Lead Co.⁹ In 1949 the journal reported a patent for a dryer for thermal pipe insulation, granted to another Joplin inventor and assigned to the Eagle-Picher Co. of Cincinnati.¹⁰

Eagle-Picher sold through contractors and distributors. In January 1938 The Asbestos Worker, the insulators' union journal, reported a meeting of union officers in Texas at which "several of our employers representing Eagle-Picher Co., Mundet Cork Co. and Johns-Manville Co." were present.¹¹ In July 1956 Asbestos reported that Glen J. Christner, vice president of The Eagle-Picher Company and general manager of its Insulation Division, had announced an expansion of the company's line of high-temperature industrial insulation, naming Eagle-Picher HYLO pipe covering and block as "the most important new additions."¹² In 1965 the journal noted the company's new catalog of high-temperature fibers, boards, sheets and insulations.¹³ By 1969 a complaint described the company as Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., a corporation organized under the laws of Ohio.¹⁴

Asbestos products

Eagle-Picher's own sworn answers, given in Texas lawsuits in 1968 and 1970, list asbestos among the ingredients of its Super 66 insulating cement and describe it as "a dry, bulk cement composed of Eagle-Picher granulated mineral wool thoroughly blended with suitable binding, rust inhibitive, and plasticizing ingredients."¹ A 1990 EPA notice that published what the company reported says Super 66, formerly called Eagle 66, was made from 1930 to August 1971 and contained 8 to 10 percent chrysotile asbestos by weight until 1963 and 3 to 4 percent after that.¹ The same notice says One-Cote insulating and finishing cement contained 5 to 6 percent chrysotile from April 1960 to 1967 and 2 to 5 percent from 1968 to August 1971, and no asbestos before or after those dates.² In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers, Eagle-Picher gave its plant as Joplin, Missouri, from 1931 to August 1971, with small quantities of "43" Finishing Cement made and shipped in January and April 1972; it said it did not mine or mill asbestos and named Carey Canadian Mines and GAF Corporation as its fiber sources.²⁴²⁵ The product list in the same compilation dates Super 66 from "1931 or prior" to 1974, with the asbestos removed in 1971, and says asbestos was added to One-Cote in 1961, where the 1990 notice gives April 1960.²⁶² The company's answers say it sold these cements to contractors, to its distributors and to certain large users, and also packaged them for other companies to sell under their own names.¹²

Other companies' names went on Eagle-Picher products, and the other way round. A 1962 letter from Paul L. Losse, Eagle-Picher's manager of research, to a Union Carbide engineer enclosed tables of the private brand names under which A. P. Green, General Refractories, North American Refractories, Philip Carey and Owens-Corning Fiberglas distributed Eagle-Picher insulation products.¹⁵ North American Refractories said in 1994 that it had sold Super 66 and One-Cote under a relabeling agreement for a period ending in 1971.¹⁶ In the other direction, Owens Corning stated in 1997 that its asbestos-containing Kaylo was rebranded for Eagle-Picher under the name "Hy-Lo" beginning around 1958 to 1960.¹⁷ The 1980 Travelers compilation lists Owens-Corning Hylo block and pipe covering as distributed by Eagle-Picher from 1960 to 1972, and the data sheet says it contained chrysotile and amosite.²⁷²⁴ Eagle-Picher's 1970 answers list a separate Hylo Cement, first made in 1963, with asbestos among its ingredients.¹⁸

Depositions of Robert L. Bockstahler, an Eagle-Picher sales manager, taken in 1984 and 1985 cover the company's asbestos insulation plant in Joplin, a table of the asbestos content of its cements, mastics and block, and the chrysotile and amosite suppliers it bought from.⁴

What the documents show

Eagle-Picher's answers to interrogatories in two Texas lawsuits filed in 1969 quote the caution it put on the bags of its asbestos-containing cements, beginning "Caution: This product contains asbestos fibre. Inhalation of asbestos in excessive quantities over long periods of time may be harmful," and say the warning "was first begun in May or June of 1964."¹⁹²⁰ North American Refractories' 1994 answers say Eagle-Picher told it in June 1964 that it planned to put asbestos warning labels on Super 66 and One-Cote and proposed the same for the relabeled versions.¹⁶ In the 1980 Travelers data sheet, Eagle-Picher gave 1964 as its first knowledge of hazards and dated its first labels to May or June 1964 on One-Cote, Super 66 and "43" Finishing Cement, and shortly after on Hylo and Hi-Stick. It gave its reasons for dropping the products as non-asbestos substitutes, falling demand and "potential health hazard."²⁵

The same sheet says Eagle-Picher denied sales to or use at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, but admitted sales to the U.S. Navy, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, the San Diego and Oakland Naval Supply Centers and GSA Region 3. It said it never ran its own contracting units, though from 1935 to 1952 it at times subcontracted installation to independent contractors.²⁵

The company was a defendant in insulators' suits filed in the federal court at Beaumont, Texas. In one, Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering, filed in December 1966, Eagle-Picher moved for a more definite statement, and the court granted the motion in February 1967.⁵ In Borel v. Fibreboard, filed in 1969 and tried in 1971, the plaintiff's widow settled with Eagle-Picher for $6,225.55, according to a co-defendant's post-trial motion; the court's interlocutory judgment of November 1971 records $5,000 paid to the widow and her attorney and $1,225.55 to an intervening insurer.⁶²¹ Our case-law library holds 87 later court decisions that name the company as a defendant.⁸

Bankruptcy and trust

A 1995 decision of the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of Ohio describes Eagle-Picher and its affiliates as being in Chapter 11 because of asbestos personal injury claims, with a filing date of January 7, 1991.⁷ The court estimated the company's total liability for present and future asbestos injury claims at $2,502,511,000 as of that date.⁷ The reorganization set aside about $730 million in the Eagle-Picher Industries asbestos trust, which has paid claims since 1997.²²

References

1. Super 66 (Eagle-Picher), product page
2. One-Cote (Eagle-Picher), product page
3. Asbestos, April 1933, p. 38
4. Robert L. Bockstahler Deposition Excerpts on Eagle-Picher Asbestos Insulation Products and Fiber Suppliers (1984–1985), UC-4913
5. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File, E.D. Tex. Civil Action No. 5402 (1962–1969): original complaint, December 23, 1966, and order granting Eagle-Picher's motion for more definite statement, February 20, 1967
6. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, E.D. Tex. Civil Action No. 6449 (1969–1972): Fibreboard motion for judgment and new trial, p. 2
7. In re Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 1995), 189 B.R. 681
8. The Eagle-Picher Company, company page
9. Asbestos, October 1938, p. 40
10. Asbestos, October 1949, p. 50
11. The Asbestos Worker, January 1938 (Vol. 11, No. 2), p. 21
12. Asbestos, July 1956, p. 59
13. Asbestos, April 1965, p. 9
14. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Civil Action No. 6449: original complaint, October 20, 1969, p. 1
15. Paul L. Losse (Eagle-Picher) to W. C. Turner on Private Brand Names for Eagle-Picher Insulation Products (1962), UC-1055
16. North American Refractories Company's Responses to Interrogatories and Requests for Production in Bexar County (1994), p. 36
17. Owens Corning's Responses to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories (1997), p. 28
18. Hylo (Eagle-Picher), product page
19. The Potter v. Fibreboard Case File, E.D. Tex. Civil Action No. 6329 (1969–1972): Eagle-Picher answers to plaintiff's interrogatories, p. 7
20. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Civil Action No. 6449: Eagle-Picher answers to interrogatories, April 1, 1970, p. 7
21. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File, Civil Action No. 6449: interlocutory judgment, Eagle-Picher, November 5, 1971
22. Eagle-Picher asbestos trust claims
23. 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. 164.
24. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Eagle-Picher Industries Product Information, p. 2
25. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Eagle-Picher Industries Product Information, p. 3
26. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Eagle-Picher Industries Product Information, p. 4
27. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Eagle-Picher Industries Product Information, p. 7

Asbestos trust

If you or a family member worked with or around The Eagle-Picher Company's asbestos products and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Eagle-Picher Industries asbestos trust. Free case review.

Asbestos products

29 products our documents name The Eagle-Picher Company as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Court cases

87 court decisions in our case-law library name The Eagle-Picher Company as a defendant, newest first.

• Nelson v. Keene Corp. (1996)
• In re Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. (1995)
• Baumgart v. Keene Bldg. Products Corp. (1995)
• Kirk v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1995)
• Busfield v. AC & S., Inc. (1994)
• Coates v. AC and S, Inc. (1994)
• Kreppein v. Celotex Corp. (1992)
• Marinari v. Asbestos Corp., Ltd. (1992)
• Feldman v. Owens-Illinois (In re Brooklyn Navy Yard Asbestos Litigation, 1992)
• Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Balbos (1992)
• Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Armstrong (1992)
• Miller v. Armstrong World Industries (1991)
• Lilley v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1991)
• Kulzer v. Pittsburgh-Corning Corp. (1991)
• Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Balbos (1990)
• Fagiola v. National Gypsum Co. AC & S., Inc. (1990)
• Kreppein v. Owens-Illinois (In re New York Asbestos Litigation, 1990)
• Dorse v. Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. (1990)
• Grispo v. Eagle-Picher Indus. (In re Joint E. & S. Dist. New York Asbestos Lit., 1990)
• Kraciun v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1990)
• Sholtis v. American Cyanamid Co. (1989)
• Naden v. Celotex Corp. (1989)
• Falk v. Keene Corp. (1989)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1989)
• District of Columbia v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (1989)
• Mauro v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1989)
• Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp. (1989)
• Kaiser v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1989)
• Dube v. Pittsburgh Corning (1989)
• Miller v. Celotex Corp. (1989)
• Fisher v. Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp. (1989)
• Falk v. Keene Corporation (1989)
• Pecorino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Whatley v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1988)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1988)
• Blazek v. Nicolet, Inc. (1988)
• Knox v. AC & S, Inc. (1988)
• Bauer v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Sorenson v. Raymark Industries (1988)
• Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. US (1988)
• Campo v. Asbestospray Corp. (1988)
• Goldman v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1987)
• Case v. Fibreboard Corp. (1987)
• In re Asbestos Litigation (1987)
• Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. US (1987)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1987)
• Rice v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1987)
• Vigiolto v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Menne v. Celotex Corp. (1986)
• Silver v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Seckular v. Celotex (1986)
• In re Moorenovich (1986)
• Herber v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Joyce v. AC and S., Inc. (1986)
• Jenkins v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1986)
• Knauer v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Lohrmann v. Pittsburgh Corning Corp. (1986)
• Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Cox (1985)
• Trimper v. Porter-Hayden (1985)
• Graffagnino v. Fibreboard Corp. (1985)
• Wilder v. Amatex Corp. (1985)
• Rosenberg v. Celotex Corp. (1985)
• Celotex Corp. v. Copeland (1985)
• Gideon v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1985)
• Lowe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1985)
• Meehan v. Celotex Corp. (1985)
• Colombo v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1984)
• Joyce v. AC & s., Inc. (1984)
• Nobriga v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. (1984)
• Adams v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1984)
• Froud v. Celotex Corp. (1983)
• Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1982)
• Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Froud v. Celotex Corporation (1982)
• DeCosse v. Armstrong Cork Co. (1982)
• Beshada v. Johns-Manville Products Corp. (1982)
• Bertrand v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Matter of Steinhardt v. JohnsManville Corp. (1981)
• Fearson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• White v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1981)
• Tysenn v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1981)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• Locke v. Johns-Manville (1981)
• McCarty v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1980)
• Mooney v. Fibreboard Corp. (1980)

In our library

5 documents in our library name The Eagle-Picher Company, by collection.

Other library documents (5)

• Catalog page: HYLO (Eagle-Picher) (publisher)
• Catalog page: PV SUPERTEMP BLOCK (Eagle-Picher) (publisher)
• Label: Fireproofing Cement (Eagle Picher) (publisher)
• Product photograph: Hylo Cement (Eagle Picher Company) and 1 other product (publisher)
• Product photograph: Super 66 Insulating Cement (Eagle Picher) and 2 other products (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

The Eagle-Picher Company is named in 6 Union Carbide documents dated 1962 to 2001 (1 as the source, 6 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. 5 of them are published in our collection.

• Paul L. Losse (Eagle-Picher) to W. C. Turner on Private Brand Names for Eagle-Picher Insulation Products (1962) UC-1055 (source, 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)
• Robert L. Bockstahler Deposition Excerpts on Eagle-Picher Asbestos Insulation Products and Fiber Suppliers (1984-1985) UC-4913 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide's Responses to Plaintiffs' Set No. 46 Interrogatories on Asbestos Exports and Imports at the Ports of Stockton and Sacramento (undated) UC-5327 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for The Eagle-Picher Company, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc · Eagle-Picher · Eagle Picher · Eagle Picher Company · The Eagle-Picher Company, Insulation Division · Eagle-Picher Corporation.

Where this comes from

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