Gardner Letter

The Gardner Letter is a 1935 letter from Dr. Leroy U. Gardner of the Saranac Laboratory to Raybestos-Manhattan president Sumner Simpson, reporting early experimental findings that asbestos caused serious lung disease in laboratory animals. It is one of the earliest documented instances of the asbestos industry learning about the dangers of its products and choosing to suppress or control that information. It is frequently cited in asbestos litigation as proof of early industry knowledge.

Origin

The letter is part of the broader "Sumner Simpson Papers," a cache of correspondence from the 1930s and 1940s between executives at Raybestos-Manhattan, Johns-Manville, and other asbestos companies and the Saranac Laboratory in upstate New York. The papers were uncovered during litigation discovery in the 1970s and have been used in asbestos trials ever since. Dr. Gardner was a respected industrial hygiene researcher whose work was funded by the asbestos industry itself.

Significance in Asbestos Context

For patients and families, the Gardner Letter is powerful evidence that asbestos companies knew as early as the 1930s that their products could cause fatal lung disease, decades before workers and consumers were warned. This historical knowledge undercuts the common defense argument that companies could not have foreseen the harm, and it supports claims for punitive damages based on willful disregard for worker and consumer safety. If your case involves exposure from products made by Raybestos-Manhattan, Johns-Manville, or other Sumner Simpson Papers companies, your legal team will likely introduce this letter and related documents to establish what the industry knew and when it knew it.

Example Sentence

During the trial, the plaintiff's attorney introduced the Gardner Letter to show that the defendant manufacturer had been warned about asbestos hazards more than thirty years before her father was exposed on the job.

Related Terms

Sumner Simpson Papers, Saranac Laboratory, State of the Art Defense, Punitive Damages, Johns-Manville, Industry Knowledge

Notes

• If you worked with products made by Raybestos-Manhattan, Johns-Manville, or other companies named in the Sumner Simpson Papers, tell your attorney. Historical knowledge evidence may strengthen your claim.
• Ask your legal team whether your case can pursue punitive damages based on early industry knowledge documented in the Gardner Letter and related correspondence.
• Preserve any employment records, union records, or product identifications that tie your exposure to specific manufacturers; this evidence is what connects historical industry conduct to your individual case.
• The letter is most often cited in cases involving exposures from the 1940s onward, but its relevance extends to any case where a defendant claims it did not know asbestos was dangerous at the time of your exposure.